Into Petra

The climb into the back of Petra - (Greek "πέτρα" (petra), meaning rock; Arabic: البتراء, Al-Batrāʾ).

After breakfast and covering some rocky ground, we reached some rough fields, which we crossed, (where the Bedouin sow wheat in the autumn and harvest it the following spring), and finally emerged from the last canyon onto a high plateau, where we could see across to the mountains of Petra and make out Aaron's Tomb - yes - Moses' brother. This is at the top of Mount Hor - situated "in the edge of the land of Edom" (From the Bible -Numbers 33:37). It is the scene of his death, a twin-peaked mountain 4,780 feet above sea-level (6,000+ feet above the Dead Sea), in the Edomite Mountains on the east side of the Jordan-Arabah valley, marked by a white Mosque.
We have had to climb (steadily) uphill … for a long time … to reach this point as we broke out onto a path on the edge of a cliff … see the photo at the top of the page … with Bob leading the Team across the ledge at a fair rate of knots! (Found out it was because he hated the exposure!).

"What exposure?"

The drop was about 300 feet … something no one was keen on trying! None of us talked much during this shuffle around the jutting rock that blocked our way … though those who disliked heights did really well.

Below - just to the right - is a Team photo, (the initial Group plus three newcomers - as we had been joined by a Dutch couple - a Physical Education expert and his wife, who worked for Red Bull in Marketing, and their good friend, a French mountaineer and ski instructor). This was taken as we reached the top of our walk. It was a still a decent stroll to the top of Petra … and then … we had reached our goal … the most amazing place – and much larger than expected; full of incredible carved buildings and Roman remains that cannot be described …Most of the visitors today come into the complex from the east (with a most impressive entrance through a dark, narrow gorge (see later in this Blog). However we had entered at the top of the "back" of Petra.

The photo below is of Bob and I at the first of these great monuments – the Monastery (El Deir). From here we walked down hill through history. The whole of Petra is truly awe-inspiring …. archeological evidence suggests that settlements had begun in and around Petra in the eighteenth dynasty of Egypt (1550-1292 BC). Though the city was founded relatively late, a sanctuary existed there since very ancient times. Parts of Exodus from the Bible mention are places associated with Petra. At the foot of the mountain called 'en-Nejr' - the summit of which was close to where we entered Petra, is a massive stone cut amphitheatre, so placed as to bring the greatest number of tombs within view. At the point where the valley opens out into the plain, the site of the city is revealed with striking effect. The amphitheatre has been cut into the hillside and into several of the tombs during its construction. Almost enclosing the place - on three sides - are the rose-coloured mountain walls, divided into groups by deep fissures, and lined with columns cut from the rock in the form of towers. An very inspiring and deeply moving scene - imagine - cut from rock but very civilised .. a theatre! There is a lot of Roman remains in Petra - not least a Forum, a Temple and paved road (Cardo). However in 106 AD, when Cornelius Palma was governor of Syria, the area of Arabia under the rule of Petra was absorbed into the Roman Empire as part of Arabia Petraea, so the native dynasty came to an end though the city continued to flourish.
At the end of this narrow gorge stands Petra's most elaborate ruin, 'Al Khazneh' - popularly known as "the Treasury" - hewn into the sandstone cliff - a sight Yemaan made sure came as a delight to us by making us hold hands and close our eyes so he could guide us to the view of this. (Below is photo of the Team outside the so called Treasury)

Then we exited via the slash in the mountains that I had mentioned earlier - ('Slash' could be correct - in places it was only 9 foot wide though it is 600 feet high and about a mile in length!) - called the 'Siq' or the shaft, a natural geological feature formed from a deep split in the sandstone rocks and serving as a waterway flowing into Wadi Musa.


Petra - what a place!