Visit to ancient city of PETRA

Trip Start Jul 10, 2002
1
4
50
Trip End Aug 30, 2002


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Saturday, July 13, 2002

Saturday 13 July Charlotte and I took a bus to Petra and stayed at the Valentine Inn. [Valentineinn@hotmail.com] It was run by a Jordanian man and his Italian wife, Valentina, who seemed to like displaying her Rubenesque figure in some non-Muslim garments. This got a French man in trouble with his pretty Thai wife who thought he did not always manage to avert his eyes. They toured the ruins separately, he alone, she with Charlotte [who preferred Char] and I. But the Frenchman knew how to charm his lovely lady and by late afternoon she decided he had been sufficiently chastened. They were quite reconciled by evening dinner.

Spent a long day Sunday at the ancient site of Petra. I had expected it to be great but it was fabulous. It covered a much greater area than I'd thought. It was tough work in the blazing sun and extreme heat but very well worth while.

[Here I stopped to scan into my C-Pen the LP description of Petra but the connection from C-Pen to PC just doesn't want to activate 03 The siq - long narrow defile.
03 The siq - long narrow defile.
 . 'Help' didn't help. The manual says they have some Trouble Shooting tips on their Web site, but hey ... It would have taken a lot less time to just retype the paragraph which is what I may ultimately do.] It will appear here:
PETRA
"This spectacular rose-stone city was built in the 3rd century BC by the Nabataeans who carved palaces, temples, tombs, storerooms and stables from the rocky cliffs. From here they commanded the trade route from Damascus to Arabia and through here the great spice, silk and slave caravans passed. In a short time the Nabataeans made great advances - they mastered hydraulic engineering, iron production, copper refining, sculpture, stone carving - all probably because of their great success in commerce. Archaeologists believe that several earthquakes, including a massive one in 555AD, forced the inhabitants to abandon the city." [LP MidEast page 440]


There were a goodly number of very interesting WTs at Valentina's hostelry and consequently much stimulating conversation. In my time have visited a number of countries, but compared to some people there I've seen comparatively little of our globe.
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