Click here to see my web album photos of Petra.
There are two routes to get to Petra from Amman and Madaba. One route is along the “Desert Highway“, which is pretty much as boring as it gets. The other route is along the “King’s Highway”, which is much less boring, and always recommended by guidebooks and tourism personnel. It takes almost twice as long, but goes through some quite pretty and sometimes dramatic terrain. The actual destination is not Petra, but the town of Wadi Musa, right next to the iconic site. I stayed in a backpackers hostel there, along with others from all over the world, many Japanese and Koreans among them. It occurs to me now that the bulk of the backpacker tourists are, Japanese and Korean in the Middle East, whereas in Eastern Europe the most prevalently represented nation was Australia. I have only met one or two Australians since Istanbul, I think.
If you have seen the movie “Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark” then you have seen film footage of the magnificent carved city of Petra. The real thing is a breathtaking experience, in many ways, and requires a good two days to get a good look at the site. It is vast and glorious and spectacular, and requires a lot of energy. And money - admission price is currently 33 Euros for a one day pass, 38 euros for two, and set to rise to 50 euros for a one day pass come September. Inside the site are dozens and dozens of local horse, horse cart, camel and donkey divers who will save you the work of climbing up hundreds of stairs (and I’m talking in the realm of 800 stairs at a time) for a fee. When the gate prices rise again (as they already did last September) these folks stand to lose a lot of business. Some of them actually live in Petra in caves, as do many of the children and women who try to sell jewellery and trinkets. Clearly, they are not on the receiving end of any trickle down from the high entry fee. The two days that I was in Petra, I would guess that there were close to 5000 people there, maybe more. The second day, they arrived bus load after bus load - all Cunard Cruise guests who had driven up from the port at Aqaba. That alone would account for a few thousand, and it was still low season.
When you enter the site of Petra, you approach the famous Al-Kazneh (Treasury) through a 1.2km long passageway of vertical walls of colourful rock. This natural, narrow chasm (not a canyon) is known as the Siq, and as you approach the end where it opens up, you get your first glimpse of the Treasury. It is nothing short of breathtaking in its splendor, size, colour and magnificence. It is considered to be the most impressive of all the sites in Petra, but there are many, many more beautiful carved buildings and hundreds of caves to be found.
As impressive is the natural beauty of the rock itself. Sandstone in composition, laden with iron it has many colours and hues, ranging from reds, blacks, browns and yellow and resembling wood grain, it has been sculpted by Mother Nature into beautiful, convoluted shapes. Lots of fun to clamber around on and explore, there is always another carved tomb and cave around each and every corner. My feeble small camera was not up to the task of capturing the beauty of the site, so I will encourage you to have a look at some web sites to get a good idea of what I saw.
I think I covered a high percentage of the “main sites” (and innumerable stairs) over my two days in Petra, although I’m sure one could spend several days and keep discovering more and more, but I was pretty much Petra’d out by then, and had had my fill. Glad to have seen it, and glad to be moving on. Next stop - Amman, the capital city of Jordan.
There are two routes to get to Petra from Amman and Madaba. One route is along the “Desert Highway“, which is pretty much as boring as it gets. The other route is along the “King’s Highway”, which is much less boring, and always recommended by guidebooks and tourism personnel. It takes almost twice as long, but goes through some quite pretty and sometimes dramatic terrain. The actual destination is not Petra, but the town of Wadi Musa, right next to the iconic site. I stayed in a backpackers hostel there, along with others from all over the world, many Japanese and Koreans among them. It occurs to me now that the bulk of the backpacker tourists are, Japanese and Korean in the Middle East, whereas in Eastern Europe the most prevalently represented nation was Australia. I have only met one or two Australians since Istanbul, I think.
If you have seen the movie “Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark” then you have seen film footage of the magnificent carved city of Petra. The real thing is a breathtaking experience, in many ways, and requires a good two days to get a good look at the site. It is vast and glorious and spectacular, and requires a lot of energy. And money - admission price is currently 33 Euros for a one day pass, 38 euros for two, and set to rise to 50 euros for a one day pass come September. Inside the site are dozens and dozens of local horse, horse cart, camel and donkey divers who will save you the work of climbing up hundreds of stairs (and I’m talking in the realm of 800 stairs at a time) for a fee. When the gate prices rise again (as they already did last September) these folks stand to lose a lot of business. Some of them actually live in Petra in caves, as do many of the children and women who try to sell jewellery and trinkets. Clearly, they are not on the receiving end of any trickle down from the high entry fee. The two days that I was in Petra, I would guess that there were close to 5000 people there, maybe more. The second day, they arrived bus load after bus load - all Cunard Cruise guests who had driven up from the port at Aqaba. That alone would account for a few thousand, and it was still low season.
When you enter the site of Petra, you approach the famous Al-Kazneh (Treasury) through a 1.2km long passageway of vertical walls of colourful rock. This natural, narrow chasm (not a canyon) is known as the Siq, and as you approach the end where it opens up, you get your first glimpse of the Treasury. It is nothing short of breathtaking in its splendor, size, colour and magnificence. It is considered to be the most impressive of all the sites in Petra, but there are many, many more beautiful carved buildings and hundreds of caves to be found.
As impressive is the natural beauty of the rock itself. Sandstone in composition, laden with iron it has many colours and hues, ranging from reds, blacks, browns and yellow and resembling wood grain, it has been sculpted by Mother Nature into beautiful, convoluted shapes. Lots of fun to clamber around on and explore, there is always another carved tomb and cave around each and every corner. My feeble small camera was not up to the task of capturing the beauty of the site, so I will encourage you to have a look at some web sites to get a good idea of what I saw.
I think I covered a high percentage of the “main sites” (and innumerable stairs) over my two days in Petra, although I’m sure one could spend several days and keep discovering more and more, but I was pretty much Petra’d out by then, and had had my fill. Glad to have seen it, and glad to be moving on. Next stop - Amman, the capital city of Jordan.
Click here to see my web album photos of Petra.
