Petra – one of the world’s new seven wonders. We had the opportunity to spend the last three days exploring this incredible treasure. You have three ticket options for visiting Petra – one day, two days, or three days. We have the time so we chose the three-day option. If you have the chance to come here and you only have one day, make it happen. If you can spend more than one day, do it. It’s a large area to explore. Our three days in the constant sun and the 95-degree heat (and it’s not even the hottest season) left us exhausted, but grateful for the chance to see so much of Petra. We clocked in with 27 miles (43 kilometers) and 70,000 steps.
This history of what everybody comes to see in Petra goes back to the Nabataean Empire, but its history goes back even further as a neolithic village has been discovered in the area. The ancient city of Petra was the capital of the Nabataean Empire and prospered around the 100 years before and after the birth of Jesus. It was well situated on trading routes of the time. It was eventually overtaken by the Romans and then an earthquake devastated much of the city in the fourth century and it was eventually abandoned as the trade routes adjusted. Local Bedouins were all that lived in the area until a Swiss explorer dressed up as an Arab convinced his Bedouin guide to take him to the lost city. That led to its increasing popularity and carries on today. Although it remains popular, once again, I can’t help but mention the tourism situation right now in Jordan. It is safe here – I’d even say safer than the United States right now – and yet because of the conflicts happening in the region around Jordan, tourism is down significantly. We did not have any crowds while we were there. While they normally get more than 5,000 visitors each day at this time of year, they might be getting 1,000. It’s tough to see. For our plan, we used a recommended itinerary in the Lonely Planet Guidebook and pretty much stuck to it for all three days. The one thing we didn’t do was the Turkish bath at the end of the third day, but our bodies would have been happy if we had done so.
Thursday was our first day and we arrived at the parking lot just up the street from the visitor center. We knew we would be subject to plenty of touts offering to guide us here or guide us there and it started right at the parking spot. We knew what we wanted to do and we went to the visitor center to pick up our three-day ticket, which was included in the Jordan Pass we bought. I know we mentioned that in an earlier journal entry, but it’s worth mentioning again that for our plans here in Jordan, it was very worth buying before arriving in the country. We were inside a little before 10am. It opens earlier and it’s not a bad idea to arrive when it opens to avoid the heat, but we valued our sleep so we dealt with the heat. Our plan today was to cover the Main Trail, which covers all the primary things to see in the ancient city. Almost as soon as you start walking the main trail and after passing the offers for you to ride a horse down the trail, you come to several tombs. We didn’t realize that so many of the structures that have been carved into the mountains are tombs for important people during the Nabataean times. Continuing along the trail, you get to a dam at the entry to the Siq. The Nabataeans were masters in hydrological engineering, and you see that by the way they preserved and routed water through the Siq into the ancient city. The Siq is the result of a natural split in the mountain that is roughly ¾ of a mile long (1200 meters). This walk is amazing – it just swerves through a narrowing and expanding path past carvings and sacred stones. Part of the path shows evidence of the Roman roads from when they held the city.
And then suddenly, there it is – the opening from the Siq looking straight at Al Khazna, better known as The Treasury.
Its intricate decorations are still in great shape, it’s around 130 feet tall, and it’s more than 2,000 years old. And despite its name, it is a tomb.
After admiring The Treasury, we continued the walk along the trail and passed The Street of Facades, which holds several more tombs and lots of caves. Everywhere you look, you can see caves where people have lived for centuries. They no longer live in these caves, but it’s evident that there was a sizable population.
We took a detour off the Main Trail and up some rocks to see the view of the Roman Theater from above. While here, we saw Indiana Jones – not sure if he didn’t find the Holy Grail when he was originally here or if he is back looking for something else. Oh, and he has lost some years along the way.
This also took us up to one of the four Royal Tombs, where we stopped for a fresh pomegranate juice and met Denise from Los Angeles. We talked with her for a little while and then carried on. Back down to the Main Trail, we were now to the point where we were leaving the area that was mainly tombs and entering the living area of the ancient city. The Nymphaeum held water for the city and is today mostly ruins, but shaded by a 450-year-old wild pistachio tree. The Colonnaded Street still has some of its columns standing and it would have been a main shopping street in the city.
The Great Temple Complex is massive at 75,000 square feet and is one of the major monuments of central Petra. The last structure in this section is Qasr al-Bint. It is a square structure and was the most important temple in Petra, dedicated to Dushara. At this point, we turned back east and visited three churches (the ridge church up on a ridge, the blue church because of its blue-colored columns brought from Egypt, and Petra Church with beautiful floor mosaics). We made our way back to the Visitor Center and bought tickets for Petra by Night for later tonight and went for lunch outside Petra. Today’s exploration took around four hours. Lunch was at My Mom’s Recipe – a third-floor restaurant with nice views over Wadi Musa (the city where Petra is located) that is decorated as if you were being welcomed into a Bedouin tent. Sandy had a Greek salad and fresh mango juice; I had beef with tahini sauce (kofta tahina) and fresh strawberry juice. After lunch, we went to the Petra Museum and learned about the history of everything we saw today. Nice museum. We went home for a few hours and then back to Petra for our Petra by Night experience. The plaza as you enter had a show going on tonight with a mariachi band visiting from Mexico putting on a show. We watched for a few minutes and I enjoyed the whole cultural exchange idea – watching the front row, which was mostly Arab women totally enjoying the high energy mariachi band and the dancing along with it. Petra by Night takes place at The Treasury. The Siq is lined with candles for the 30-minute walk there and then the courtyard in front of The Treasury is also filled with candles and carpets for guests to sit on.
The show starts with a Bedouin flute player and then the light show on The Treasury begins. We really enjoyed it. The production shows how it was carved and depictions of how it looked 2,000 years ago. The experience is also a narrated history of The Treasury and the Nabataeans. It was an awesome first day exploring Petra.
Day two had us back in our parking spot at Petra a little after 10 and the same greeters were there to try to sell us on whatever experience they wanted us to have. Today we were headed to Little Petra and I had read that the shuttle to Little Petra is included in the ticket. The touts didn’t like that we wanted to go to Little Petra for free – they wanted us to pay them $15 to take us there. It’s hard – we want to support them as tourism is down, but we also want to do so in a sensible manner. We found the shuttle to Little Petra just behind the museum and the ride was around 15 minutes. Little Petra is what it says – a smaller version of Petra. It was basically a suburb of the main city 2,000 years ago.
After Little Petra, we walked to Bayda. This is among the oldest settlements to ever be discovered. It points to inhabitation in this very spot 9,000 years ago, which is in the neolithic age. I was very impressed with seeing the remains here – Sandy? Less so as she isn’t as interested in history as I am.
We walked back to the entrance to Little Petra and paid our 5JD each (around $7) for our four-wheel jeep ride to the starting point of our next hike. Our itinerary had us taking the Back Door Trail to Ad-Deir (also called The Monastery). When the jeep dropped us all off (there were 15 of us in the jeep), ten or so Bedouins came rushing up on mules screaming and playing loud music and trying to get us to all take mules up to The Monastery. It was interesting because I figured everybody came to do the hike, but three people did take the mule rides. The hike was up and down and we went past some beautifully colored stone in the cliffs.
The hike was around an hour – mostly up. Some of our fellow hikers weren’t there to enjoy the silence in nature and talked as if they were trying to communicate with people across the valley. But arriving at The Monastery was impressive. Maybe a little better than The Treasury, you can really tell how the Nabataeans carved these tombs out of the mountains – this tomb sits deep into the mountain and you can kind of see how they would have cut away so much rock. Phenomenal.
We stopped for fresh pomegranate and orange juice and ate some of our packed snacks and then made our way down the 850 steps into Petra.
We had chicken shawarmas and pomegranate juices for lunch and then did another hike. Again, this one had us go up quite a bit – it’s called the Al Habis Trail and also has beautiful rock through the mountain. At the top, this one offered a bird’s eye view over the ancient city of Petra.
We finished today’s exploration a little before 5 and stopped at Cave Bar, right at the entrance for well-deserved Petra beers. Sandy had salmon and cheesecake for dinner and I had chicken skewers and chocolate ice cream.
Today was our last day to explore Petra, although when we got to the entrance, we were told that because we had a three-day ticket, we get a fourth day free and could come again tomorrow. I’m afraid that neither of our bodies were voting to take advantage of that benefit. Our guys in the parking lot didn’t waste their time on us today. Today’s first itinerary item was to hike the Al-Khubtha Trail. The goal at the end of this trail is to see The Treasury from an overlook above. It was a great view and the hike wasn’t too bad.
It took us a total of 90 minutes and we worked hard enough that once again, the pomegranate and orange juices tasted amazing when we got to the bottom. There was one more hike on the itinerary and I wasn’t sure if I was up for it. The guide states that it is a “hard” hike and it should take 3.5 to 4 hours for the two miles. And then there was still the walk back to the entrance. Sandy chose to enjoy her afternoon back at My Mom’s Recipe with a Greek Salad and mango juice and enjoy a version of her Starbucks time. I chose to push my body more. This hike is called the High Place of Sacrifice Trail. The beginning is straight up to the top of a high hill overlooking Petra where they used to conduct animal sacrifices as a part of their religious rituals.
The hike was almost deserted. I was happy that two other people started around the same time as I did because when I was on the back side of the mountain, I wasn’t sure if I was headed on the right trail. It was nice seeing them occasionally to confirm I wasn’t lost. It ended up taking me around 90 minutes and I did not run – not sure why it would take up to four hours. When I finished, I was beat. I slowly made my way back to the entrance and fell into a chair at Cave Bar where Sandy was waiting for me. We both enjoyed Petra beers and I also had orange juice, a fruit smoothie, and a bottle of water. I was dehydrated and it was nice to replenish. We both had cheeseburgers and fries. We were home at 5:15. Sandy washed our day packs, sun hats, and boots as everything was covered in sweat and dust. We were in bed reading before 8 – exhausted.
That’s the recap of our experience at Petra. It’s amazing. It is worth being selected as one of the world’s new seven wonders. There is an energy about it that when you leave, you kind of want to go back – even with the heat, sun, inclines and sand trails that are tiring. Of course it was nice to experience the place with less crowds, but travelers need to return. It is obvious that many people in the area depend on visitors. The itinerary that we used from Lonely Planet was perfect for us. Even without the Turkish bath, their recommendation to wrap the third day up at Cave Bar to celebrate “a wonder well-visited” was right on target. Pretty amazing.
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