A tomb or two
Trip Start
Sep 17, 2007
1
222
272
Trip End
Oct 08, 2008
Wadi Musa,
Jordan
Thursday, July 17, 2008
The morning started with the walk through the siq and a short appreciation of the Treasury (cause it's just unbelieveably crowded starting from about 8 a.m. until noon). Our main goal of the day was to go to the one main site we hadn't yet been to - the High Place of Sacrifice. The title pretty much sums everything up.
A long and winding flight of stairs took us up to the top of the mountain where the place of sacrifice was located. From there Travis hopped over to another rock and stood surveying everything below him
a pomegranite tree
. It was really an excellent location. Below the high place there are two stone obelisks dedicated to Nabatean gods, and we passed these as we made our way down the other side of the mountain. But wait! There's always something. As we followed the path I heard a mewing, and then there was a cat hanging off the rock, but before I had two seconds to get worried it popped over the rock and told us in no uncertain terms that it wanted attention...and food. I immediately fell in love with the cat, which was quite affectionate, and while she told me all the things happening in her life I made a little paper water cup and she had a nice long drink of water. Then she got some love from me, then Travis, then me, then Travis, until finally some other people came along and she went to talk to them. She was a lovely small cat. In Wadi Rum I read about Desert Sand Cats, and while I doubt she was one that's what I decided to think of her as. My Desert Sand Cat.
Down the winding staircase we went until we came upon the Lion Monument - a water system running through the rock, at the base of which was carved a lion about three times life size. There was also a nifty rock that resembled a clam, and Travis's exploration yielded a nifty little rock carving there. At the bottom of the stairs we got to the Garden Tomb. Actually, they think it was the home of a priest who guarded the cistern, the garden, and the entrance to the High Place of Sacrifice. It's a very unique building in Petra, and I'd recommend that visitors at least go take a peek. Beyond the garden there was the Soldiers' Tomb and its triclinum. They were built across from each other with a courtyard in between - also a very unique construction. The tomb itself still has Roman soldiers carved in its niches
Djinn blocks
. This was neat since it seemed as if most such carvings hadn't been able to withstand the weather. We had lunch in the triclinum. This was particularly appropriate as the triclinum was a dining hall used annually to celebrate the persons entombed. The interior of the triclinum was also particularly unique in that it was decoratively carved on the inside rather than only the outside. From here we wandered about some more tombs before heading toward Al-Habis, a little mountian with the remains of a Crusader fort. Not that you can tell that by looking at it. On the east side of Al-Habis we found the Columbarium, a special burial chamber where zillions of niches were designed to hold the ashes of the dead. We have no idea why some people had ashes and some had full body tombs. Then Travis found an elephant rock and the unfinished tomb in a foray to the bottom of the mountain. The tomb was particularly surprising because it was begun from the top and had been finely finished there before they even finished cutting out the main area of the tomb. Take a look at the photo to see if you can catch my drift.
With our last hours we made our way back to the Temple of the Winged Lions to see if we could find this goofy carved face that was supposed to be there
Obelisk Tomb
. We searched everywhere, even climbing into the center where we weren't totally sure we were supposed to be, but it was nowhere to be found. This was mildly irritating, because why would something say it was somewhere if in fact it wasn't there? Then we went to explore some blue pillars, which turned out to be a Byzantine religious site not on any map. Must be new. But the blue granite pillars are quite pretty. This done we thought about making other explorations and searches, but after one bust we decided we were tired and called it a day. But it was altogether three days very well spent.
Erin
