The 800 steps of pain.

Trip Start Mar 07, 2006
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Trip End Jun 07, 2006


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Flag of Jordan  ,
Wednesday, May 3, 2006

On the move again today to that fabled city that conjures up more mystical and fantastic imaginations than perhaps any other in the Middle East, the Nabatean city of Petra.

The road there is the beginning of the King's Highway, the most pituresque of the three North to South running highways in Jordan. Climbing up mountains dotted with small fields and Bedouin camps, wondering how on earth they make an existence from these small rocky fields and their goats. Resilient doesn't even begin to describe it.

Arriving in Wadi Mousa, the village is nestled at the top of the valley and leads down to the gates of Petra. You walk down a beautiful coloured rock natural canyon that seems to go on forever before finally getting the first glimpse of the iconic image of Petra, Al Khazneh or the Treasury Building in Petra
Building in Petra
 . There is no other way to describe it other than absolutely breathtaking. So breathtaking you can just sit and look at it, the beautiful rose colour of the sandstone rock changing with the light. The quality and beauty of the carving is a thing to be marvelled at.

As you continue through the site the area is dotted with more Royal Tombs, a theatre, colonnaded street, temples and caves that were used for anything from stables to storerooms.

The sheer size of the site is impressive, you could quite easily spend a week here wandering through the hills dotted with caves and rock cut facades. Unfortunately we only have 2 days so we must make the most of the time we have here.

We managed a couple of climbs to the High Places of Sacrifice and to the Monastery, a punishing 800 step climb high up the mountain but rewarded by a fabulous view of the surrounding area.

We hired a couple of young Bedouin guys to take us on their donkeys up to Little Petra, a ride of a couple of hours up a steep deserted gorge to the rock cut village, supposedly inhabited 9,000 years ago.

For the sheer beauty of this place, it takes the prize for the highlight of the ancient monuments we have visited so far.
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