Neil and Karla got up early again this morning (groan) to finish off the bits of Petra that we still wanted to see.

We hightailed it to the steps leading up to the High Place of Sacrifice and commenced the steep walk upwards. Once at the top (and a long tough walk it was) we saw the two obelisks – so knew we were in the right place. There was not a soul ahead of us – and most of the souvenir shops weren’t even open up the path! We caught our breath and had a leisurely walk around. We finally spotted a lone woman at the top of what looked like a hill and made our way up there.

Once we found the High Place of Sacrifice (Al-Madbah), we realised that it was on one of the highest points of Petra. The view was awesome as you can imagine. The lady selling souvenirs at the High Place of Sacrifice

Karla with Local Bedouin Lady

pointed out that there were two altars. She showed us where the goats were sacrificed (cringe) and we could see the channel where the blood flowed down. After enjoying the views, we headed on down the mountain on the main route through to Petra. It was hardly a main route – as we were the only ones on it (barring the locals). We saw a bunch of keys sites on the way down, including: a large carving of a lion that used to have water running over its head; the Garden Hall; the Soldier Tomb; the Coloured Triclinium opposite the soldiers tomb; and the Renaissance Tomb. We definitely rate the Renaissance Tomb as the best tomb we’ve seen – all the others just seem like empty (sometimes smelly) square boxes. The climb down was quite difficult, with tight, narrow winding steps. We’ve included a photo to give you all an indication!

Stairs on the "main route" back to Petra

Then of course, we decided to take a shortcut back to Petra – and nearly came unstuck… we still managed to find a shorter way back to the main road – but it certainly won’t be in any guide book!!!

We stopped at the Treasury along with a billion other people, and enjoyed the thought that we had seen the place with no other people the day before! We had also wandered through the hall behind the entrance yesterday – which was definitely blocked off to all and sundry today!

After a quick trip back to the hotel and once we were clean again, our driver took us to little Petra. As the name suggests, it is much smaller than Petra, and the tombs are older and more eroded. From there it was a mostly uninteresting trip to Wadi Rum.

At Wadi Rum, our driver, Hasan, took us to the Lawrence of Arabia spring (uninspiring), the Khazal canyon (moderately interesting), and some other stuff which we found quite boring. The different colours of the sand was probably the most striking thing about the place – but we could have seen that in half an hour instead of three! It is interesting that this whole area is still dining out on Lawrence of Arabia – many decades after the movie was released! We were glad to be shot of the place. We did however enjoy cardamon coffee and tea in a Bedouin tent – the best part of Wadi Rum.

From there, it was on to Aqaba. Our first impression was of the closeness to Israel, Eqypt and Saudia Arabia (but we’re not going to any of those countries – promise).