Petra

I've never had a burning desire to visit the Middle East.  I don't think I can be blamed given the standard treatment the region gets in the mainstream media in the U.S.  However, when we were looking at potential destinations, I was drawn to Petra in Jordan, thanks to Indian Jones and the Last Crusade.  Some research comforted us that Jordan was more than safe for travel, and we slotted one week there between our time in Asia and Europe.  It is one of the best planning decisions we have made.  It can be easy to get jaded after eight months of travel, but no level of road weariness could take away from this ancient city.

Amman, Jordan's capital, was our first stop in the country.  For a capital city its size, it is fairly light on sights.  Although it has a long history dating back to Neolithic inhabitation in 8500 BC, it was a small village for much of the last 1,000 years until waves of Palestinian and Iraqi immigrants since 1948 have helped swell the population to around 2 million. We hit up the two major attractions our first day there: a Roman Theater built in the second century AD and the Citadel, an archaelogical site on top of a hill.  The theater was mildly interesting, but I'm sure we'll be seeing plenty more like it in Italy.  The Citadel was more engaging, with both Roman and muslim Abbayid ruins enclosed within fortified walls with great views of Amman. We were supposed to go to the Dead Sea the following day, but then we found out how expensive the endeavor is and we dropped it. It would have cost us $45 to enter the beach, plus transportation. While not outrageous, it is too much on our budget to simply take the obligatory picture of us reading a newspaper while floating in the water.

Children playing the RomanTheater

View of the Roman Theater and Amman from the Citadel

Atop the Citadel

Petra is located roughly three hours south of Amman.  A UNESCO World Heritage Site, it was the capital of the Nabataean kingdom and dates to the sixth century BC.  It survived through Roman rule only to be largely destroyed by an earthquake in the fourth century AD.  Despite the earthquake, it is an amazing place.  All the freestanding buildings but one collapsed, but many buildings literally sculpted from the mountains remain.  The main entrance to the city is a 1200 meter path called the Siq that winds through red cliffs.  At the end of the path, the Treasury (aka the Indiana Jones building) appears through a slit between the rock walls.  The rest of the city is just as impressive.  My favorite two spots were the Monastery, a building similar to the Treasury accessible by walking up 800 steps that took it out of us, and the Place of High Sacrifice, another steep hike with great views over Petra where we passed only two other people.  I'll stop talking and let you look over the pictures.  I should point out that Magge bought a fancy new camera (our waterproof camera ceased to be waterproof) just prior to coming here, and this post is the first to unveil its pictures.  There are a handful of pictures from my much-less-fancy camera in here, and you should be able to easily spot them.

Petra's colors

Walking through the Siq

The Treasury emerges at the end of the Siq

The Treasury

Sights around Petra

The Monastery (for scale, that's Magge with her arms stretched out at the entrance)

For our moms, pictures featuring the both of us

Hike to the Place of High Sacrifice

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