Day 4 – Petra – “The Red Rose City As Old As Time…”

We woke up early and had a Bedouin breakfast of bread with several accompaniments. The first was honey, which is simple enough. The second was olive oil combined with “zaatar”, which is thyme and several other spices and is absolutely delicious. (Incidentally, we found zaatar everywhere we traveled after seeing it for the first time here.) The third, my favorite, was date juice, which is similar to light, more liquid, syrup. With traditional Middle Eastern bread (think pita but flatter) it’s unbeatable.

Nail and Hamed dropped us back off at the Wadi Rum Visitor’s Center and we exchanged our pleasantries and cold hard cash (no plastic in the desert!). Obeid had organized two spots on a bus from Wadi Rum to Petra, and we hopped on it for the scenic two our ride through the desert valley, stopping at ridiculous vistas – one including Wadi Araba, the abysmal rock valley which creates a natural border between Jordan and Israel.

We arrived at Petra around 1PM, and it was blazing. Being the Guju that I am, I declined exchanging cash at our hotel fearing the less than market rate and we made our way up to Wadi Musa which is the nearest “town” about 2 kms from Petra. This walk was uphill, mind you, and many of you know “uphill” is my arch nemesis. Halfway up the hill we stopped in an antiques store hoping that they would want to exchange “black market” US notes for Jordan Dinar, and the proprietor cordially relayed that he wouldn’t be able to, but was driving into town to make a quick stop and wouldn’t mind taking us in his car to the ATM. Me fearing the worst, the “everybody is trying to be your friend and make a little bit of cash”, I asked him how much money he would ask for after the ride, and he insisted that he was doing it out of goodwill. We hesitated but hopped into his truck…

Three hours later the 3 of us were enjoying a sheesha and black tea after one of the most amazing lunches on our trip. In that afternoon, we had learned more about each other’s cultures, lives, families, than I would have ever imagined. Mahmoud owned the building which we stopped in which contained both a gifts store and a brand new restaurant serving traditional Jordanian / Bedouin food, teas, sheeshas, etc. – and was one of the more gracious hosts I’ve ever come across. He taught us about all the various spices in the food, history of his people and where he comes from, cultural anecdotes and idiosyncrasies – and we reverted the same. Fearing the bill when he brought it, thinking that it would be too good to be true, I was astounded to see it was $15USD. Unbelievable. We booked a date for dinner at his restaurant and sauntered down to the entrance to Petra.

Vans and I figured we had a good 5 hours to explore that day, and just in case, bought a two day pass in the event we felt like waking up and hiking a few more sites the next morning. Mahmoud had hooked us up with one of his friends that worked at the Information Desk, and he met us at the entrance and took us through a map with recommendations on how to tackle the next couple of days. We filled our water bottles, laced up our shoes, through our hats and sunglasses on, and started the walk.

The ancient city of Petra was founded, if you will, more than 2,000 years ago by the Nabateans, a commercial people who over the course of hundreds of years built their city into the sandstone cliffs of Petra and controlled ancient trade passages in the spice and silk routes. The “entrance” to Petra, famously known as the “Siq”, is a kilometer long rift in the rock with cliffs climbing to almost 100 meters providing a serpentine path to the greater “city”. There are several ancient carvings and tombs en route, providing the explorer with a brief appetizer of what’s ahead.

After dodging horses and chariots and camels carrying wilting walkers, and associated feces, the Siq opens up to the most famous sight of them all – “The Treasury”. Made famous by Indiana Jones and other Western movies, approaching and seeing the Treasury in person is as breathtaking and surreal as one can imagine. Originally designed as a tomb, it was nicknamed the Treasury as folklore suggests the Egyptians pharaohs hid their wealth in the urns high up inside the building.

From the Treasury, the city opens up providing a vast and dramatic sight for the senses. As you walk through the ancient city, you pass by magnificent tombs, places of worship, theatres, markets, roads, etc. – I was astounded at how humongous and organized the city was. We slowly made our way through the dozens of sites, mostly in ruins, learning about the history of the Nabateans and successive civilizations which inhabited the city and influenced subsequent architecture.

Our last stop was The Monastery, a temple constructed by the Nabateans which later was convereted into a Byzantine church. The Monastery is an arduous hour long climb up countless rock steps carved into a mountain, but is well worth the trip. This is the building which is in the latest Transformers movie, Revenge of the Fallen. Here we took a breather and sat in a café with cushioned diwans and coffee tables adjacent to the incredible monolith of the monastery. Sipping on our tea, we watched a local man walk over to a rock precipice and start climbing. His grace was inherent – not something which was developed by training but more so by the fact that he was probably born and raised in this rock environment. After a few minutes, he had climbed about 75 meters, perfectly parallel to the top of the Monastery! It was incredible – and not for money did he do this, simply for passing time. He disappeared for a few minutes and we reconvened our tea break, only to see him this time on the actual edge of the top of The Monastery! A place I didn’t think any man could ever or dare to ever reach – he had gotten there in an easy 5 minutes. He disappeared again, and I remember whispering “don’t try to jump the gap”, and sure enough, we see the man flying over a gap in the roof of the Monastery! Seconds later, he begins, I don’t know how, climbing the round “steeple” of the building, and within seconds, he is sitting on top of the Monastery. The very tip top – smoking a cigarette! We clapped and hooted for him – later we found out the men who ran the café (Rastafarian types that mostly lazed around and hit sheesha), would time themselves to see who could make it up there the fastest. It was incredible.

We made our way back and backtracked through the city as the sun set and turned the rock blood red. Petra is well deserved as a Wonder of the World. Words and pictures cannot describe the monstrosity which is the city, and how such a long time ago the Nabateans could create these magnificent structures with minimal technology is unprecedented. All in all, we must have walked around a dozen kilometers, and our legs certainly felt it. We met Mahmoud once more and had a brilliant dinner at his restaurant, shopped at his restaurant, and slept like babies.