Petra Jordan

I was born on a Good Friday so it is perhaps fitting that my visit to one of the biggest items on my bucket list – Petra in Jordan occurred this Good Friday. Jordan- a land with a history spanning back some 100,000 years. A land with some 40,000 ancient archeological wonders none more famous than Petra with its instantly recognisable “Treasury”. A land bordered by Syria, Israel, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. 80% desert with a growing water problem it’s also known as the “land of the rocks”.

It takes two hours by bus to travel from Aqaba our port city to Petra. We pass through no towns – the entire journey occurring through rocky, barren terrain. Up mountains and through deserts- such as the Wadi Rum desert made famous by “Lawrence of Arabia”. I see Bedouins tending their flocks of goats besides their tents made from the hair of these goats. I see camels and sheep and we travel through thick impenetrable fog in some parts. Surprising as I was expecting extreme heat not bitter cold. The formidable land is harsh, dry, unbelievably rocky and totally awe inspiring. A land where temperatures span plus 50 degrees Celsius to minus 5. Where sandstorms are frequent- the closest landscape we have to the moon.

It is a public holiday (although not our Christan Good Friday) explaining the larger than average crowds. Passing through airport grade security- we are immediately approached by touts pushing their horse, donkey or cart rides further down into the heart of Petra. Petra, built some 100 years BC by the Nabateans. In its heyday (30BC – 14AD) home to over 20,000 people. Lost and forgotten to Westerners until it’s rediscovery in 1812.

Ignoring the touts we begin the descent into the narrow, mile long chasm called the Siq. In some places only ten feet wide and over 100 feet high this chasm of pink, purple and cream sandstone echoes with the cries of the touts, horses, carts and people scrambling to get out of their way. Underfoot it is rocky, wet, muddy and slippery in parts.
Shoes wet and freezing cold all is forgotten with the first glimpse between the narrow chasm of the rosy stoned Treasury facade. Cut out of the living rock , some 90 feet wide and 130 feet high this is what I have been waiting for. Having first heard about Petra years ago from my Great Aunt Hilda it has been a bucket list item for a long long time. It is a crazy moment – presented with the absolute sheer majesty of this facade in its entirety I just stand there. Despite the jostling of hundreds of other tourists, camel and donkey shit underfoot, wet muddy shoes, cold weather – it doesn’t matter. I am standing in front of history itself.

It takes a while to tear myself away but after the ubiquitous photo there is curiosity as to what lays further ahead. Petra is some 10 square miles and only 15% discovered, and while the Treasury is its main drawcard there are literally thousands of other antiquities to see. The ruins of elevated tombs, streets, arched gates, temples, stairways, amphitheatres, cave houses and you need a week to see it all. I only have today. Snapping selfie after selfie and becoming numb to the sight of so much history I eventually call a stop to my wondering and realise that I now have to turn around and make my way back out again. Hours later, stomach rumbling, legs aching, camera memory full I make my way back out of the Siq.
With another two hour bus ride ahead of me I can only sit back and reflect in disbelief on the tenacity of the Bedouin people, the harshness of the landscape and of all that I had seen.

Unfortunately due to no internet at the time of writing this blog – I am unable to do the imperial to metric conversions.

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