To distract you from how far behind in my blogging I have become, I will now dazzle you with one of the Wonders of the World. If you've been following me for a while you know that while I was in Ireland I had the opportunity to see Giant's Causeway, a natural wonder. Now in Jordan, I have had the chance to travel to another wonder: the Red-Rose City of Petra.
As I have done in the past, I tried to research Petra so that I could explain who built it and why. The problem is no one actually knows. It is believed to have built by the Nabeteans in the late 300's BC. However, records are sparse regarding the early masonry and ownership of this place. Constructed at the opening of a wadi or natural canyon, the first building is called the Treasury or Siq. What treasure did it hold? No one knows. More than likely it was only actually used as a tomb and if we stretch the truth a bit we can conclude that whoever was buried there was buried with his treasure. I mean, it's a pretty amazing place to be laid to rest, he must have been a king of some sort. Who he is and what was (or was not) buried with him remains part of the mystery. Similarly, the final building on the path is known as the Monastery. This is most apparently a misnomer because this building is only one room deep and could not serve as the housing for the religious leaders of the Nabeteans (if in fact they were the ones who started it all). Maybe this is part of what makes Petra a wonder: the anonymity of its founder.
Scattered betwixt the staggeringly ornate carved buildings are a few Roman remnants. Like everyone else who has stumbled upon Petra, the Romans were exceedingly impressed with its architecture. As they had the habit of doing, the Romans set up shop in the same area in order to make use of the surroundings and the locals. They did not stay for very long though. Rome was very good at building water ways to the areas that lacked natural springs and Petra was no exception. However, after a series of earthquakes destroyed many of the buildings and the water pipe system Rome decided it smarter to leave Petra and went off to focus their efforts on more habitable lands.
Petra, though uninhabited, seems unable to remain out of the public eye for very long. It hosted the end scenes of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The Treasury serves as the backdrop but since the actual building only houses three rooms, the remainder of the scenes are shot on a Hollywood set (sorry to disappoint you). Despite this press, it was not until 2007 that Petra was considered a World Wonder. Between 2000 & 2007 the New 7 Wonders Foundations worked to weigh various landmarks across the globe to see which was worthy of the title. Petra beat out many contenders, most notably the Statue of Liberty and the Pyramids at Gaza (Gaza retains an honorary status as one of the Ancient Wonders), and is counted among the Taj Mahal in India, Chichen Itza in Mexico, Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, the Collesum in Rome, The Great Wall of China, and Machu Picchu in Peru.
Our journey began at 7 in the morning. As we traveled north, we had to stop on the side of the road and appreciate the view that we had from the top of the mountains. There wasn't a sand storm that morning per se but we could see the dust moving and playing with the colors of the horizon. I believe we started our journey through Petra around 10:30. Gene and Zead led our group of seven American girls (Kara, Laura, Mindy, Katie, Carly, Jessica and I) along with Gene's son Rubbia down the sandy road into the wadi. Naturally carved canyons offer both a wonder of their own with all the colors and formations, along with relief from the sun. Like I said, Petra is in the middle of the desert and any relief is always welcome. Along the way there were carvings in the rock that let us know what to expect up ahead. We exited the wadi to find ourselves in front of the Siq. They have closed the Siq to the public so all we could do is look at it. All around us buzzed tourist groups, trinket salesmen and locals who make a living providing camel, donkey or horse rides to visitors who do not want to hike the trail. After an appropriate amount of appreciating, we moved on from the Siq.
Evidence of the Romans was right up against the original carvings. The Roman theater was right across from some "apartments" that are carved in the red sandstone that gives Petra its name. The Roman road offered our legs a break from dredging through sand. While making our way up the road, Jessica found a friend in the little boy who was selling rocks beside the roadway. He was elated to make the sale and she was glad to make his day. Next up, were more Roman remains: Hadrian's Gate and the temple. These were the last sites on flat terrain; if we wanted to continue on we had to hike up the sand covered stairs or rent a donkey. I was determined to walk the whole thing and did so. Jessica, Katie and Gene joined in my uphill march while the others rented donkeys. Gene called this being a "hiking purist", I called it a questionable life decision. I must say though, the donkeys only beat us by five minutes which is impressive if you consider we were climbing up stone stairs under the noonday sun. Once we caught up, it was down a different set of stairs to the Monastery. We had brought along fruit and snacks for the journey and the Monastery served as our hideaway from the sun as we ate. Finding some natural 'footholds' we all climbed into the Monastery. Inside of this huge building is only one room with no furniture or fixtures, no ornaments or decorations, and no apparent purpose. The stark difference between the highly ornate outside and the four plain walls inside reminds me of what someone said about white-washed tombs: the outside looks great but the inside is empty and only houses rotting bones (Matthew 23:26-28).
If you think you like apples, let me say you have never tasted an apple until you have hiked five miles uphill in the desert and then, when you finally get a rest, you bite into a bright green apple. The granny smith apple I had in the Monastery was the best apple I've ever had in my life. It's funny how the arid times make the mundane things spectacular. After our short break (it certainly felt short) we jumped out of the Monastery and continued up to the End of the World. The view from the top most peak we were able to climb is known as the View of the End of the World. It certainly felt like it. That's not to say we looked over the cliff and saw into space; rather when you looked around from the top of the cliff it felt like if you looked for long enough you could find the end of the world. As if to make this point, Gene pointed out a white dot on one of the mountain tops opposite us. That white dot is the final resting place of Aaron...yeah that Aaron: brother of Moses, head of the priesthood, featured in the pages of scripture. Again our enjoyment of the view was brief and then we turned around to journey back down the trail we had just painstakingly climbed (not to complain). Going down is always easier than going up but the steps were still sprinkled with sand and sure footing was a bit trickier to find. The road that we walked down to the wadi is a steady three mile uphill on the way out. Laura and Zead decided since they had had enough exercise that day and rented horses to take them out. Laura's horse was named Indiana Jones, in case we had missed the connection between the franchise and the place we had visited. So figure the road in and out is about three miles one way, the hike through Petra is about five miles one way which makes a total of approximately sixteen miles covered in one day. Not bad for a wee stretch of the legs.
https://picasaweb.google.com/108532852514122909750/Petra?authkey=Gv1sRgCO7IqOKbwPKZ1QE#
