The early start definitely paid off today – we were some of the first people into Petra – and had the place to ourselves!!!

 Neil and Sandra started with a horse ride from the tourist entrance (Karla walked with our guide – Zaid) down to the Siq. We made our way slowly down through the Siq – stopping at various sites of interest that would easily be overlooked without a guide. We learned about how water was channelled and filtered into Petra, saw the crossroads, learned about the gods (with no heads – as they didn’t know what the gods looked like), saw sculptures that would easily be missed, tried some red stone as a blusher and several other things that made the walk enjoyable and stimulating.

 The first view of Al Khazneh (the Treasury – which is carved out of solid rock from the side of a mountain, and stands over 40

First glimpse of The Treasury

meters high) was as spectacular as you could imagine.

We were the only ones there at around 7.30am in the morning and it was worth the early start. There are some new excavations in the front of the Treasury, which have revealed a couple of tombs that were previously hidden. How on earth they could know to excavate at that particular spot is hard to imagine. From the Treasury we walked down towards the amphitheatre, viewed a few historical sites and then walked up to the urn tomb. A small purchase was made on the way there that made a local man very happy…

Once Zaid bade us farewell, we headed towards the Monastery – which is a site at one of the highest places in Petra. To get there, it is a difficult climb up about 800 stairs (not sure how they counted those), or a comfortable ride on a donkey (so says Sandra). Once there, the view is like the Treasury – spectacular. We wandered around and looked at several tombs, and views of amazing vistas from on high. The walk down was much easier – but it was still difficult, as the terrain is varied, very uneven and covered in donkey poo and rocks.

 We started to see a lot more people – but strangely enough, when we went to visit the Qasr al-Bint (the main template of the Nabatean capital) and the Petra Great Temple there was nobody there. The Petra Great Temple has recently been excavated (so recently, that it doesn’t feature in any guide maps of the area) and was stunning to see. Some of the original (roman?) art work has survived the ages – and

BsKnee outside the Treasury

had been left intact within the reconstructed walls.

 By this stage, we had walked a long way and were getting a bit tired – but we still had about 2km to walk back to the hotel. So, we set an easy pace and eventually got there – 9 hours after setting out this morning!!!

We had arranged to meet our driver in the early evening – and also bumped into some others that we had met on our Bethany Beyond the Jordan excursion (Katherine and Heikki). Ibrihim took us all up to see the sunset over Petra (shame it was a bit hazy), then took us out to tea at a local eating place – where the last photo is from.

Dinner at Petra

 Tomorrow we’re off for Petra round two – then on to Aqaba.