Jordan & Petra – The Lost Rose Red City

 

Jordan

DAY 88 – April 3, 2011 – Sailing across the Red Sea northward toward the Arabian peninsula, we travel up into a long arm of these waters into the the port city of Aqaba, the only seaport access to the small nation of Jordan.

People travel from all around the world to Aqaba, the gateway to Petra, one of the most wondrous, mystical and lost cities found on any continent.  The discovery of 4,000 years-old human history in this amazing city, cut into solid sandstone and granite rock, shocked the world.  The access to Petra was hidden away in a remote slot canyon 3 hours north of Aqaba…it was an amazing event worldwide when this ancient city was discovered in 1812 and unearthed in 1980.

Petra was chosen by the BBC as one of “the 40 places you have to see before you die.”  It is unbelievable and defies description.  It speaks volumes about the glory of the star-studded Arabian Nights around Bedouin campfires and the (T.E.) Lawrence of Arabia movie classics.

The 7-mile round trip hike into the slot canyons leading down into Petra was a breeze going in…all gradual downhill.  Coming out was another story…I got some help from a very willing camel with a forgettable Arabian name…who trotted all the way as I bounced around on his hump without stirrups.

If you can imagine an entire city, carved into mountain-side rock, that can be found only by slipping between the 1000-foot high rocks in a slot canyon…you have some understanding of why this mysterious city had never been discovered. 

99% of Petra has yet to be unearthed…but you can see in the photos below how the sense of discovery awes every visitor who slips into this mystic, forgotten city and knows there will be more…much more…to be seen as scientists and archeologists work on uncovering this UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Below are photos of some of the drama that unfolded before my eyes:

Yes, somewhere down there, is the entrance into the slot canyon that kept the discovery of Petra a secret for 4,000 years.

The narrow, multi-hued slot canyon walls went up, up, and up forever as I continued walking down, down, down…the sun only had one hour to work its way down into the canyon here.

Then suddenly, this was my first look through the slot canyon wall opening to view the rose-colored rock front of a stone building called “The Treasury.”   My heart nearly burst and my eyes filled with disbelief tears.

It is impossible to capture the immense size of this building in a photograph…see the size of the people at the base of “The Treasury Building.”  The building is literally carved into the granite wall.

The architectural detailing is hard to comprehend, considering the facade is over 4,000 years old.

Stairs and doorways into the basement levels of this building add even more to the total height and interior rooms inside.

Once inside the canyon, continuing to walk downhill, the entire hidden canyon opens up to reveal more, and more, and more buildings carved into the rocks.

And finally, you reach a point when your legs just won’t go any further, and I turned around at this huge amphitheatre that seats 2,000 people…complete with rooms below for something…gladiators I suppose, since it is surmised that the Romans had also used Petra’s buildings.

So, OK…enough about rock buildings…here are a few other images of Jordan that I also loved…

Camels in waiting for fatigued tourists…

Here is my trusty camel with a forgotten name and his owner, also a forgotten name, that helped carry me back up and out of the slot canyon…

You can also get cart rides down and up out of the slot canyon…$30 US one way…I should have done this…

And there were Arabian horses available everywhere, too….why did I opt for a CAMEL?

I know why…camels are fearless…they browse around in the double lane highway medians with trucks, buses, and all kinds of traffic whizzing by them.  And they’re smart, too…one camel owner told me his father sold 20 of his camels to a man 400 miles away in Saudi Arabia and two weeks later the camels showed back up at his father’s house.

And lastly, here is the sunset after we returned to our ship in the Aqaba harbor, ending a fantastic day as we raise anchor and head on north to the Suez Canal and enter the Mediterranean Sea.