petrafied

Five days ago, Devin and I were enjoying breakfast in Dahab on Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. We were discussing our travel plans to see Petra in Jordan, when a Californian by the name of Eliot interrupted us to introduce himself, and inquire into the details of our proposed trip. While he initially decided to stick around in Dahab, Devin and I later ran into Eliot about 45 minutes before we had to catch a bus to the Israeli border and he informed us that he would be going with us. Happy to have another person along to split the travel costs, we all met up at the Dahab station, boarded our bus, and rode through the wilderness. We stopped for lunch at the Egyptian frontier, then gathered up our luggage and walked into Israel. Exiting Egypt was a bit of a hassle, as the Egyptian border guards operated at a near-glacial pace, but after securing a number of different stamps, we were on our way into Israel.

Getting into Israel with a US Passport was pretty easy, we didn't even need to pay for our visas, but it did cost us $20US for the cab ride to the Jordanian border. Bizarre as this might sound, it just felt better to be in Israel than Egypt. There was a sense of development and infrastructure that I hadn't realized I had forgotten about, and I swear that it even smelled better. When we arrived at the Jordanian border, we had to pay the rather hefty Israeli exit tax (for the pleasure of having enjoyed their country for the last 20 minutes) and pass through customs. We entered Jordan to find the same sluggish apathy exhibited by the border guards, but after dealing with the hassle, we crossed our second border in two hours.

We approached a parking lot, crowed with predatory cab drivers who were well aware that they had a captive market, and operating with an overt collusion so as to inhibit "shopping around" for a good deal. We initially attempted to find some other way of getting to Petra, but when it appeared that there was no way, we turned to the cabs. Their initial asking price was 60 Jordanian Dinar (JD), which is about $85US, but we managed to talk them down to 45JD. However, this negotiation involved some serious shouting amongst the drivers, reaching a head when one of the drivers took the business card of another driver from my hand and ripped it up.

We finally boarded a cab, drove for 5 minutes, then were forced to switch cabs for reasons unknown. Regardless, we drove for around 2 hours into Jordan, making one stop along the way, before arriving at last outside Petra. The three of us checked into our hotel, then were guided around the town by one of the hotel attendants. We ordered a dinner of pita, hummus & fuol, and cucumbers & yogurt to go, while Eliot searched around town for provisions for tomorrow's visit to Petra. Everyone was reunited at the hotel, where we ate our meal and looked over Eliot's purchases. As we had planned to spend the entire day at the site, we would need enough foodstuffs for three meals. In the end the two logs of salami, three cans of corn, five rolls of bread, jar of olives, can of mushrooms, package of dried apricots, and two bags of pastries were more than enough to carry us through the day, and after splitting the cost, we each had three meals for only 5JD.

The dinner was a hurried one as we planned to go to bed early that night and there was one more important goal left unaccomplished. Our hotel had a copy of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and with a visit to Petra looming in the morning, I was not going to sleep without watching through to the finale. I was the only one that made it through the entire film to watch the four horsemen gallop off through the very canyon walls I would be walking through the next day. I was also the first one awake the next morning, and as soon as I suited up and woke my travelling companions and we made our way out of town.

It only took 15 minutes to make it to the entrance of Petra, and there we shelled out the 21JD entrance fee - more than many Jordanians make in a week. Walking down into the canyon, we caught our first glimpse of the structures built into the cliff face.

Making our way down to Petra.

Placards explained to us how the people that built Petra had constructed a dam near the entrance to the city to divert the flash flood waters that had spent centuries carving out these sandstone canyons. Not only did this allow them to built up the canyons, it also supplied them with a reservoir, which was was carried through the city by aqueducts carved into the canyon wall.

Aqueducts line the canyon wall.

Making our way through the canyon was an unforgettable experience. The cobblestone street meandered through the natural curves of the canyon wall, opening up into large squares before constricting back into narrow causeways. All around the towering pink sandstone sheltered us from the sun, while putting on a fantastic display of color and form, swirling formations mellenia old. Before long, we found ourselves approaching the Treasury Building, the most famous facade of the ancient world, and the poster image of Petra. Eliot, Devin, and I, abandoning the pretence of "cool", burst into spontaneous semi-harmonic "song" during the approach, a spectacle that I was lucky enough to capture on video...

Goofy-ness aside, it really was spectacular. The state of preservation is outstanding, and the facade is such a unique structure, carved as it is, a relief on a grand scale, into the rose red rock of the canyon. The enigmatic building, identified in modern times as the Treasury, has stood for hundreds of years in one of the largest openings in the canyon. Our efforts to enter the building - and extract the Grail we were all sure was inside - were thwarted not by three tests of faith, but rather a sturdy fence and a public presence. Instead, we carried on further into the ancient city.

Outside the Treasury

Most people, previously myself included, are unaware that there is anything more to Petra than its long canyon and famous facade. However, this is truly a lost city, stretching for kilometers around in various states of preservation. Those who lived here, the Nabateans, were tent dwellers, but they carved their public buildings and tombs into every crevice available in the rugged terrain.

More of Petra.

Some of the less beautiful tombs cut deep into the rock to appear as though they were free-standing.

Before the midday heat set in, the three of us decided it would be a good idea to climb up to the central heights of the city. Here, on top of the mountain, ancient animal sacrifices were carried out against the spectacular backdrop of the surrounding scenery. Today, it is important to be sure that you follow the correct trail to the summit, as tourists have gotten lost and died in the unforgiving desert heat. We actually managed to lose the poorly-marked trail for a while, before being recalled to it by a helpful Bedouin women. Our ascent was easy enough, broken by a small lunch, and the view from the top was quite impressive. The rock formations in the area are spectacular, their wavy disorder contrasting artistically with the precision form of the structures carved into them.

Running around on the rock formations.

Leaving the heat of the summit behind, we descended back the way we had come, returning to the town center. From there we headed up the valley wall, following ancient stone staircases through the tombs of the Nabateans. We explored through the ruins, making our way higher and deeper into the valley wall. Eventually we came to a secluded spot, hidden from the valley floor where we rested and ate a relaxed lunch.

The area of our exploration.

The largest tomb in Petra.

Having finished our meal, and watched as some rather large wasps carried off some of kernels of corn that we dropped during lunch. We decided to explore farther into the valley, going off the trail where the sandstone steps had dissolved away centuries ago. After passing some mountain goats, we suddenly found ourselves on top of one of the larger tombs in the area, able to look out over the city center from above.

Giant wasps carrying off corn.

We lingered on top, taking in the view and waving at tourists and touts down below, before carefully descending the rocky face of the valley wall down to a small plateau. The plateau, difficult to access from the valley floor, offered a wealth of interesting tombs and buildings to explore, and Eliot, Devin, and I spent half an hour indulging our curiosities.

The swirling sandstone formations.

Light beaming through a hole in the ceiling of a tomb.

Finally, we climbed down from the plateau to the valley floor below, where we reviewed a map of the area to plan out our remaining time. We still had yet to visit the Monastery, Petra's second most famous building, which exists in a state of preservation similar to the Treasury. However, the Monastery was a two hour round-trip climb through the desert and up a small mountain, and so the prospect was a little more daunting. Refusing to miss anything so spectacular, the three of us began our hike out of the city center and toward Monastery. The climb was admittedly difficult. Under ordinary circumstances, it would not have been so bad, but we were double-timing it up the mountain, having already spent the entire day hiking through the desert, and the heat continued to be unforgiving. Nevertheless, the view that greeted us at the end of our climb made its difficulties worthwhile, as the Monastery loomed out at us, large and magnificent.

Fitting the profile.

The Monastery (note the figure in the doorway for scale).

The Monastery was fantastic. While not as famous as the image of the Treasury, it is nearly as well preserved, and slightly larger. Inside its carved-out great room are some of the best acoustics I've ever come across. After the three of us spent some time investigating the site and catching our breath, we decided to follow up on reports of a spectacular view farther up the mountain. Climbing up the trail, we came across a rather interesting sign...

The view from the end of the world.

Such an invitation is impossible for the curious mind to pass up, and seriously intrigued, the three of us headed up the path toward the End of the World. When we finally made it to the point where the trail terminated at the ledge of a ravine, the sign had lived up to its claim. Nothing was alive in this vast and desolate landscape, which stretched out over rocky outcropings as far as the eye could see. But for the familiarity of the far away horizion, one could easily believe that the earth simply fell away at this god-forsaken place.

Bedouin camps along the edge of the end of the world.

Eliot decided that he would be staying at the end of the world to take in the aproaching sunset, while I professed an interest in seeing the canyon and Treasury again during the daylight. With Devin coming with me, the two of us agreed to meet up with Eliot at the secluded spot we had eaten lunch, and Devin and I began our decent. It was much easier going down, and as we made our way off the mountain and into the city center, the sun was already hanging low in the horizon. In this diminished light, the pink and gold hues of the rock shown more vividly, assuming unnaturally beautiful colors. We made it to the Treasury with time to spare, and I will never forget the expiriance of lingering on a rocky outcropping and just taking in the sight of this famous building.

Taking a look at the famous facade.

After a while, Devin and I left the Treasury behind, and made our way back up to the prearanged meeting spot. Arriving there early, we decided to explore the area a little more thuroughly, finding a series of stone steps that took us higher up into the valley. We sat down on top of an outcropping overlooking the city and watched as the sun slipped beneath the rocks and sand. Our outcropping had a vein of the most vibrantly purple sandstone I've ever come across, and extracting a pebble from this vein I came the closest I ever have to fulfilling a childhood ambition of finding a purble pebble.

The purple pepple.

The sun setting over the ancient city.

We spotted Eliot making his way back from the end of the world, and so Devin and I climbed down to our meeting point where all three of us were soon reunited. We feasted on our remaining provisions, stuffing ourselves to avoid wasting any food. By the time the meal was over, the sunlight had been replaced by the brilliant white light of the full moon. Visitors are encouraged to leave Petra before the sunset, but we had elected to ignore this encouragement in order to enjoy this magnificant site during the full moon. Also, tonight there was a nighttime viewing of the Treasury, complete with a small performance, and by staying inside the site we avoided paying readmission. Instead, we carefully made our way from our hideout down to the valley floor, where we walked by moonlight halfway out of Petra. We hid ourselves in a small crevace ajacent to the main thuroughfare, down which visitors soon began walkng. We slipped into their procession, and followed them back down to the Treasury. Our path was illuminated by paper lanterns, marking the edges of the canyon with a surreal beauty. When we finally made it back to the Treasury, we found that hundreds of these paper lanters, dimly illuminating the square.

Nothing more than a candle inside a sand bag, but if you put a couple hundred of them together the effect is quite spectacular.

We were served a small glass of some of the best tea I've ever had, and the short performance followed. First we listen to a song on a Bedouin gutair, a single-stringed instrument with remarkable range. Then a flutest began a soft song from inside the Treasury. It was a nice show, though rather short, and all three of us were quite happy that we did not pay readmission. Nevertheless, as we remarked to each other as we followed the illumated path out of the ancient city, staying until night was a fantastic idea, and everyone had a great time. We finally stepped outside the city more than 14 hours after entering, quite literally spending our entire day within its awe inspiring confines.