Day 8 – Thursday 21 December

Today is Petra day – we have had Petra on our bucket list for many years & had been hoping that one day we would get here – today is the day & we are both so excited.  I am awake at 5am again this morning so is Austin who decided that it was cuddling time – no chance to lie & maybe snooze a little.  After a delightful buffet breakfast we cross the road from our hotel & are at the gates & we hire a guide before starting the long slow descent past a few tombs to the entrance of the As Siq.  There are locals everywhere trying to sell us horse rides, donkey rides, camel rides & carriage rides as well as stalls full of tourist trinkets.  Our guide is a young local & very informative, we would have missed so much if we did not have him.  Petra began to prosper as the capital of the Nabatean Empire from the 1^st century B.C. though human habitation is evident up to 10,000 years before this.

We start seeing tombs carved into the rock straight away, there are tombs everywhere & then we come to the first elaborate tomb, Bab Al Siq, it is very large with carvings on the face & it is multi-story.  We then come across a dam & an 88m long large tunnel to divert water in case of flash flooding, these people were amazing hydrological engineers.  We reach the entrance to the Siq, a very narrow deep rocky gorge that is 1.2km long.  On either side of the Siq are water channels cut into the rocks on both sides, some with ceramic pipes.  This is amazing in itself & along the Siq there are numerous niches for prayers to the Nabatean gods.  The Siq twists & turns, narrows & opens before our guide gets us to go to one side of the Siq, walk directly across to the other side, turn towards him & shut our eyes.  He then asks us to turn & open our eyes.  We are amazed, the Treasury Building appears before our eyes & is as magnificent as we had envisaged, carved out of the solid rock.  We can only imagine what it must have looked like before the centuries of conquer, occupation, vandalism, neglect & the forces of nature inflicted upon it.  There are lots of locals here offering donkey & camel rides as well as endless trinkets.  The guide told us at the beginning that he will tell us quickly what is for sale but we should say “no” unless we want it.  These poor people including young kids are trying to sell their wares but very few sales are made.

Walking further past the Treasury we pass a row of monumental Nabatean tombs carved into the cliff face before coming to a massive theatre carved into the solid rock, capable of seating 4,000 people.  This is the only theatre in the world carved out of solid rock & is very impressive, the sheer amount of rock they must have carved out of here is staggering to comprehend.  Next along is the façade of the Royal Tombs, with the Palace Tomb the largest & most impressive, again amazing the sheer amount of work that was done to create these beautiful structures.

We keep walking & are greeted by a colonnaded street with the Great Temple complex, one of the major archaeological & architectural monuments of Petra.  The temple complex is huge & was completed in the 1^st century B.C.  Next to it is the most important structure in Petra, the Temple of Qasr al-Bint, dedicated to the Nabatean god Dushara.  This structure, like the one next to it, are not carved but made from stone blocks carved from other structures, such as the theatre.  This temple still stands over 20 metres high.

We leave the ladies & Austin here.   (Tereza) The guide told us that it is a very hard steep 800 step journey – poor Austin’s little legs are so tired, Monica isn’t feeling too well, her throat is very sore & my knees had more than enough, even though I really would like to go but common sense must prevail because there is still the trip back, approximately 4 kms.  We start the long walk back to the motel after a rest for a while at a restaurant – we drink & eat some dry apricots, dates & Danish pastry.  Us big boys start the next venture, off to see the Monastery, or Al Deir.  This is a further 2.5km hard walk uphill & up many stairs, said to be over 800 stairs carved into the rock.  It is very hard walking as the sandstone is badly worn & the ascent is very steep.  Amazingly, there are trinket sellers with their stalls set up right along this path.  Eventually we reach the Monastery building & it is so much larger than the Treasury building, more than twice as high & wide, it truly is impressive in its size.  Standing at the base of the building it overawes you, it is so large.  We see another very large tomb on a high hill overlooking the Monastery & decide to walk up to it.  The view from up here is amazing, you can see the rugged mountain ranges in all directions heading off into the distance.  The Monastery is also very impressive from up here.  Amazingly, there is a trinket shop selling drinks on the top of this mountain.

The walk back down is a lot easier, standing aside as donkeys carrying tourists walk up or down the steps. As a consequence, there is a lot of donkey poo over the stairs & there are people cleaning up at various spots along the path.  The view from the other direction as we walk back down is just as impressive, we stop often for photo shoots.  The walk back to the Treasury is relatively easy, however, the walk back along the Siq is all uphill back to the gates.  By the time we get back to the motel my shirt is saturated with sweat, a good thing it is a cool day.  We find the girls back in the rooms relaxing then Charles & I head down to the bar for a couple of refreshing beers, they do go down very well.  Next is a shower, a very welcome relaxation, then a nice rest.

Austin wanted to ride a donkey back to the Treasury building, about half way back to the motel.  Monica & I tough it out.  We see police & guards along the way, that giving us that warm fuzzy feeling that they are keeping us tourists safe.  We have a few rests, water, apricots & dates & finally we make it back to the motel where the 3 of us lie down on one bed & go to sleep.

Wow, wow, wow it was an amazing day to see one of the 7 wonders of the world – we are very privileged even the children agree.  Now we can tick off Petra from our bucket list.

We play a few games of Uno in the lounge & then another great dinner (once again we all ate too much).  Hopefully we will have a good nights rest because it is an early start in the morning for a long drive to the airport & back to Abu Dhabi.