Israel! Petra, Jordan

Petra.....Wow!

The word Petra is Greek for rock.

Several Bedouin families live in caves here, and are the vendors at the beginning of the area, as well as at the bottom of the Siq. They offer camel rides and these carts for the ride down to the treasury. Several of our group took them... we chose to walk so we could see more, and stop as we were going down the canyon.



The road to the treasury connects to the Kings Way, the main "spice route" or trade route.
The terrain was different as we walked down. This part was more yellow sandstone. Notice in this picture, the purplish mountains. We saw those from our hotel. The second from the left has a white spot on top.... this is a monument where Moses brother, Aaron, is buried.



Tombs were sealed by building a wall, with the base being covered with water. There were several carvings by man,
this one called the Obelisk Tomb

as well as carvings by nature along the way.


Djinn Blocks, which are tombs or memorials to the dead, are also along the way.


At the entrance of the Siq, Navatine reenactors were performing.


An archway spanned the entrance until 1895 when it collapsed.

Water channels run along each side of the gorge. They held clay pipes that carried fresh water to the city from springs.



Along the way was remains of a large than life Camel Caravan Relief, carved in 100-50BC. It depicts a group of camels and drivers entering Petra.




I can see why God talked about not worshipping other gods. It seems like they were prevalent! Several carvings and godblock niches to honor these other gods were along the cliffs.




On the way, several Bedouin children approached us to sell jewlery and postcards. Paul left his hat with one of them.....


Some parts of the gorge was narrower than other, all overwhelmingly tall!


There was more evidence of water systems


and steps carved along the way


When you get to the end of the gorge,


the view of the Treasury is stunning!


Bullet holes can be seen in this carved urn, which is said to contain hidden treasure


There are more layers unseen below, still to be escavated!


As the road curves to the right of the Treasury, following the road revealed many more carved monuments.
On the left, the Street of Facades built 50BC-50AD, is rock-cut tombs which are arranged in ascending street-like rows along the cliff face. The colors and grain were beautiful.






Then the 7000-seat Roman Theater


On both sides of the road were Bedouin vendors


On the right side, as we walked down the road, up on the hill were the Royal Tombs:


The Urn Tomb


Silk Tomb


Corinth Tomb


A close up of one of the columns shows the colors of the rock.


and the Palace Tomb which is very wide.


a herd of goats.... could not see what they were eating! Looked like all rock to me~


The Colonnaded street 100-200 AD


The Great Temple





Hadrien Gate



Another view from the Hadrien Gate, looking back down the road, along the Colonnaded street, with the Royal Tombs on the hillside.


The Byzantine church is currently being uncovered





and painstaking work is being done to clean the tile.



Because the sun was higher in the sky, on our return walk back up the Siq we were able to see different colors than on the way down.




Some of our group hiked even further, to the Monastery, which is the largest monument in Petra.

I found this web site that was really interesting and had some great pictures, especially of some of the archaeological park we did not see:
http://nabataea.net/arrive.html

This was definitely one of the top places we visited!!