Israel and Jordan, 2011—Day 12

Petra. After a long 3 1/2 hour bus ride from Amman, we reached Petra of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade fame; it is mind blowing. Our friend, Jeff, tried to tell us about Petra but words were not adequate. Although much has been written about Petra, nothing really prepares you for this amazing place. It has to be seen to be believed. Petra, the world wonder, is without a doubt Jordan’s most valuable treasure and greatest tourist attraction. It is a vast, unique city, carved into the sheer rock face by the Nabataeans, an industrious Arab people who settled here more than 2000 years ago, turning it into an important junction for the silk, spice and other trade routes,between the Red Sea and the Dead Sea, that linked China, India and southern Arabia with Egypt, Syria, Greece and Rome. It is not permitted for motorized vehicles to enter the site, but horse-drawn chariots rattled through the gorge, bouncing on the cobblestone, and barely missing the hundreds of pedestrians. Petra is half-built, half-carved into the rock, and is surrounded by mountains riddled with passages and gorges. It is one of the world’s most famous archaeological sites, where ancient Eastern traditions blend with Hellenistic architecture. We entered the “city” through the Siq, a narrow gorge, almost a mile in length, all downhill, which is flanked on either side by soaring, 250+ feet high cliffs, reminding us of the slot canyons of northeastern Arizona. Just walking through the Siq is an experience in itself. The colors and formations of the rocks are dazzling. As we reached the end of the Siq, we caught our first glimpse of the Treasury, and it almost took our breath away. This is an awe-inspiring experience. A massive façade, about 100 feet wide and over 140 feet high, carved out of the sheer, dusky pink rock-face and dwarfing everything around it. It was carved in the early 1st century as the tomb of an important Nabataean king and represents the engineering genius of these ancient people. The Treasury is merely the first of the many wonders that make up Petra. There are hundreds of elaborate rock-cut tombs with intricate carvings – unlike the houses, which were destroyed mostly by earthquakes, the tombs were carved to last throughout the afterlife and 500 have survived, empty but bewitching as you file past their dark openings. While grossly overshadowed by the Treasury, there also is a massive Nabataean-built, Roman-style theatre, which could seat 3,000 people. There are obelisks, temples, sacrificial altars and colonnaded streets. Despite successive attempts by the Seleucid king Antigonus, the Roman emperor Pompey and Herod the Great to bring Petra under the control of their respective empires, Petra remained largely in Nabataean hands until around 100 AD, when the Romans took over. It was still inhabited during the Byzantine period, when the former Roman Empire moved its focus east to Constantinople, but declined in importance thereafter. The Crusaders constructed a fort there in the 12th century, but soon withdrew, leaving Petra to the local people until the early 19th century, when it was rediscovered by the Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt in 1812. After an all too brief visit of less than 3 hours, we began our arduous one mile trek uphill to the bus for the 3 1/2 hour drive back to the hotel. If we are afforded an opportunity to visit Petra again, we’ll spend much more time exploring its many crevices and nuances.