Here is a picture of the buses/vans
The drive was right through the middle of the desert. Every once in a while we would see a small little village and wonder how it could survive with only sand surrounding it. We would also see some small houses all alone just made out of wooden pallets or other scrap material.
We got to Petra at about 1 pm. The start of it is a little museum and lots of different shops. They had a few warning signs that I thought were really funny.
The picture on the bottom right says "John should have thought about his size and the animal's welfare before taking a ride."
From the entrance it is about a 1/4 mile walk to the Siq. Before the Siq there are a few cool tombs to look at. This was all out in the sun though so we didn't spend too much time looking at these (these are from the second day at 6 am, that .
After about 5 pictures my Surface shut down and when I tried to turn it on a thermometer showed up indicating it was too hot. We are thinking it was over 110 outside. I was worried I wouldn't get any pictures of Petra after that. Luckily we had some cold water in my backpack and we put it next to that. It cooled off enough to work again, but we tried to use it sparingly.
The Siq was probably the most amazing part of Petra. Think of the canyon that they rode through in Indiana Jones and the Search for the Holy Grail. That is the Siq. It reminded me a lot of the canyons in southern Utah, but skinnier and taller. Whereas most canyons are made by a river slowly eroding the walls away, the Siq was made by a massive earthquake. I guess this was the fault line and it just opened up in the earthquake. Some spots were probably about 50 feet wide and others maybe just 15 feet wide. We got to walk through it four different times, and were amazed each time. Back in the first century when Petra was in its prime, there were water channels on both sides of the canyon that would carry water to the city. Although this is the entrance that tourists use now, I guess it was just an entrance for religious ceremonies in the past.
Sorry for all of the pictures, it was just really impressive.
Right as you exit the Siq you see the Treasury. This was just a tomb with a small inner part, but a very impressive exterior that was carved into the mountains. All throughout Petra were these tombs carved into the mountains. The Treasury one isn't the biggest, but because of its location it has sustained the least damage to it from wind and rain. It is impressive how sharply cut some of the stone lines still are even after 2,000+ years. We couldn't go inside it because it was all blocked off with police guards at the entrance. I am guessing they didn't want a ton of people trying to get the holy grail.
After the Treasury we decided to walk to the Monastery which is at the very far end of the park. It was a six mile walk each way with almost 800 stairs. What made it worse was the heat. We did bring a couple water bottles to help us on the way and we ended up going through 12 refills on them. All along the trail there were kids offering us camel/donkey rides which sounded tempting, but we decided to just do it all on our own.
At the top of the Monastery we took a break to catch our breath and enjoy the view of the Arabian desert. While we were resting there some daredevil started to climb the Monastery building. He was jumping from one part to the next even though there was probably a 50 foot drop if he fell. The Monastery is the biggest of the buildings that were carved into the mountain in Petra. It had tombs in it too, but I guess they also used it as a church over the years.
From the Monastery we slowly made our way back seeing all of the tombs and other ancient ruins along the way. It was amazing to explore them. Lots of the time it seemed like we were the only ones around and so I am not sure if we were supposed to go into all of the places that we went in to. But there were thousands of caves and you could probably spend a month just exploring the whole park.
This was a stadium that they cut into the mountain. If I am remembering right it would seat over 4,000 people.
This was their temple complex. It sounds like it didn't really have a temple in it, but was more of their government offices and bath houses and things like that.
This was their big church. It was built exactly square. It is pretty much the only building that was not carved into the mountain that still stands. Rebecca and I explored it and found a stairway inside one of the walls. It just went up to a window about 2 stories off the ground.
A few more tombs
They called this one the royal tomb. I am not sure if it actually was for their royalty, but the courtyards in front of it were pretty impressive.
The royal tomb probably had the largest inside to it - maybe 50 feet by 50 feet. It is amazing how they cut these exact squares into the rock.
In the center is the place where they offered sacrifices. Some people think maybe they did human sacrifices here.
After a long day we ran to the exit to make it out by closing time at 6 pm. Then we hunted around for a place for dinner and made it back to the hotel exhausted.
We woke up the next morning to enter Petra again at 6 am. This time we really were the only ones in the park. I couldn't believe that there was no one else around. This time we explored some of the closer tombs that we kind of rushed through the previous day. Again, it was all so impressive thinking about the work that must have gone into building this place. We also enjoyed imagining what the town was probably like when it was the center of the kingdom and thousands of people were living there.
After 3 hours in Petra we made our way back to the hotel for the all you can eat breakfast. This is a picture of our breakfast from Aqaba, but it was the same idea for all the breakfasts in Jordan. Just lots of fresh vegetables, pitas with jelly and a dry nut butter thing, hard boiled eggs, hummus, yogurt, omelets, and then I would also usually get a bowl of cereal (that is a nice vacation thing for me since we never have cereal in our house).
Then we checked out and made it to the bus stop for a bus back to Aqaba. Luckily the bus filled up quickly and we only had a 1 hour wait before it took off.
Back in Aqaba we did some walking around waiting for sundown so we could buy some food. We got one of the same dishes we got the first night in Aqaba, a different grilled meat dish, and then stopped by a bakery. We didn't know how much things cost in the bakery, but everything looked so good. Rebecca just told the guy dishing things up to give us one of everything. Really, we only got about half of the things. They were all really good, but also really sugary. We were so stuffed and only got about half way through them.
The picture on the bottom right says "John should have thought about his size and the animal's welfare before taking a ride."
From the entrance it is about a 1/4 mile walk to the Siq. Before the Siq there are a few cool tombs to look at. This was all out in the sun though so we didn't spend too much time looking at these (these are from the second day at 6 am, that .
After about 5 pictures my Surface shut down and when I tried to turn it on a thermometer showed up indicating it was too hot. We are thinking it was over 110 outside. I was worried I wouldn't get any pictures of Petra after that. Luckily we had some cold water in my backpack and we put it next to that. It cooled off enough to work again, but we tried to use it sparingly.
The Siq was probably the most amazing part of Petra. Think of the canyon that they rode through in Indiana Jones and the Search for the Holy Grail. That is the Siq. It reminded me a lot of the canyons in southern Utah, but skinnier and taller. Whereas most canyons are made by a river slowly eroding the walls away, the Siq was made by a massive earthquake. I guess this was the fault line and it just opened up in the earthquake. Some spots were probably about 50 feet wide and others maybe just 15 feet wide. We got to walk through it four different times, and were amazed each time. Back in the first century when Petra was in its prime, there were water channels on both sides of the canyon that would carry water to the city. Although this is the entrance that tourists use now, I guess it was just an entrance for religious ceremonies in the past.
Sorry for all of the pictures, it was just really impressive.
Right as you exit the Siq you see the Treasury. This was just a tomb with a small inner part, but a very impressive exterior that was carved into the mountains. All throughout Petra were these tombs carved into the mountains. The Treasury one isn't the biggest, but because of its location it has sustained the least damage to it from wind and rain. It is impressive how sharply cut some of the stone lines still are even after 2,000+ years. We couldn't go inside it because it was all blocked off with police guards at the entrance. I am guessing they didn't want a ton of people trying to get the holy grail.
After the Treasury we decided to walk to the Monastery which is at the very far end of the park. It was a six mile walk each way with almost 800 stairs. What made it worse was the heat. We did bring a couple water bottles to help us on the way and we ended up going through 12 refills on them. All along the trail there were kids offering us camel/donkey rides which sounded tempting, but we decided to just do it all on our own.
At the top of the Monastery we took a break to catch our breath and enjoy the view of the Arabian desert. While we were resting there some daredevil started to climb the Monastery building. He was jumping from one part to the next even though there was probably a 50 foot drop if he fell. The Monastery is the biggest of the buildings that were carved into the mountain in Petra. It had tombs in it too, but I guess they also used it as a church over the years.
From the Monastery we slowly made our way back seeing all of the tombs and other ancient ruins along the way. It was amazing to explore them. Lots of the time it seemed like we were the only ones around and so I am not sure if we were supposed to go into all of the places that we went in to. But there were thousands of caves and you could probably spend a month just exploring the whole park.
This was a stadium that they cut into the mountain. If I am remembering right it would seat over 4,000 people.
This was their temple complex. It sounds like it didn't really have a temple in it, but was more of their government offices and bath houses and things like that.
This was their big church. It was built exactly square. It is pretty much the only building that was not carved into the mountain that still stands. Rebecca and I explored it and found a stairway inside one of the walls. It just went up to a window about 2 stories off the ground.
A few more tombs
They called this one the royal tomb. I am not sure if it actually was for their royalty, but the courtyards in front of it were pretty impressive.
The royal tomb probably had the largest inside to it - maybe 50 feet by 50 feet. It is amazing how they cut these exact squares into the rock.
In the center is the place where they offered sacrifices. Some people think maybe they did human sacrifices here.
After a long day we ran to the exit to make it out by closing time at 6 pm. Then we hunted around for a place for dinner and made it back to the hotel exhausted.
We woke up the next morning to enter Petra again at 6 am. This time we really were the only ones in the park. I couldn't believe that there was no one else around. This time we explored some of the closer tombs that we kind of rushed through the previous day. Again, it was all so impressive thinking about the work that must have gone into building this place. We also enjoyed imagining what the town was probably like when it was the center of the kingdom and thousands of people were living there.
After 3 hours in Petra we made our way back to the hotel for the all you can eat breakfast. This is a picture of our breakfast from Aqaba, but it was the same idea for all the breakfasts in Jordan. Just lots of fresh vegetables, pitas with jelly and a dry nut butter thing, hard boiled eggs, hummus, yogurt, omelets, and then I would also usually get a bowl of cereal (that is a nice vacation thing for me since we never have cereal in our house).
Then we checked out and made it to the bus stop for a bus back to Aqaba. Luckily the bus filled up quickly and we only had a 1 hour wait before it took off.
Back in Aqaba we did some walking around waiting for sundown so we could buy some food. We got one of the same dishes we got the first night in Aqaba, a different grilled meat dish, and then stopped by a bakery. We didn't know how much things cost in the bakery, but everything looked so good. Rebecca just told the guy dishing things up to give us one of everything. Really, we only got about half of the things. They were all really good, but also really sugary. We were so stuffed and only got about half way through them.
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