Petra is the most amazing place I have ever seen in my life. It is one of the 7 modern wonders of the world, and it has been part of the UNESCO world heritage since 1985. Petra is Jordan's treasure. It was the capital city of the Nabataeans and it was built around 1200 B.C. I think it is very impressive to see the work the site has, and all the water canals and engineering!! I know humans today would not be able to build with their hands what these people built more than 3000 years ago. It was discovered in 1812 by a Swiss explorer, and until this day there is so much that has not been discovered. The tour guide said they are keeping some surprises for the next generations, and I hope I live long enough to see the whole site unveiled. This is a place you HAVE to go visit.   This is how the path begins, I started noticing how much rock there is, and of course donkeys and horses are very useful because it is a long way to walk.  This is the first man carved mountain I saw, and I was already so happy to see it. I didn't know what was coming up next.  Chariots are available for tourists  The Siq, it is the path people walk in order to reach the main door. It is so narrow and colorful, the color of the rocks is red, orange, yellow... incredible. On the side of the walls there are canals that were carved by the Nabataeans in order to have water in Petra  I like this picture because I don't think these tourists even noticed they had the remains of these carved sculptures next to them. the front pair of legs is supposed to be a man and he is guiding a camel. Few remains of the camel's body but I can still picture it.  Color, Color everywhere  The landscape, unbelievable. I decided to barely edit these pictures to keep the true colors.  First glimpse.  Petra's main door, is actually a burial site, this was taken later in the afternoon when the light was nicer... and again it is barely edited, and posted in color, so the rock's colors can show just like they are.  The details and perfect straight lines these people carved into a mountain! with only the most basic tool, I still don't know how they did it, and it is wonderful  Cats, are the Middle East's street animals. Unlike Mexico where dogs are everywhere or New York with the rats, here cats get to chill everywhere, in this case in the main door of Petra  Beautiful  I like this picture because it puts into perspective the size of humans compared to size of the site.  Throughout the site there are many caves and people actually live in some of them. There is a book called "Married to a Bedouin" and it is the story of a New Zealand woman who came to Petra as a tourist and fell in love with a Bedouin. They got married, had children and lived in a cave for decades. Now her husband passed away, and she still lives in Petra selling her book.  A ride back to the entrance sounds like the best plan, me and my friend Alyaa decided to walk and if you are not used to exercising it will exhaust you.  Transportation within Petra comes down to: camels, donkeys, horses or chariots. Donkeys are cheap, faster than camels and cool  You may wonder where all the camels are... one of my next posts will be only about camels that I came across in the Middle East... this is the sneak peek |
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