Petra

We went from Wadi Rum to Petra on Sunday the 14th. Wow, almost a week from when we started! We got up at 6am Monday morning (ugh...) and caught a cab to the visitor center in Petra. Did you know that Petra is one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World? And I was about to find out why.

At the visitor center we got Dad's 2-day (mine was free) ticket, put on sunscreen, and started walking. There was a 800-meter downhill walk to the entrance of the Siq (See-q). If you didn't want to walk, though, you could ride a horse down to the entrance, but down to the entrance only. If you were really feeling lazy, though, you could take a horse and carriage all the way through the Siq, but it looked bouncy and uncomfortable. Dad and I took neither. We were planning to ride the horses to the entrance on the second day, but we decided not to even go on the second day. Finally we got to the entrance of the Siq.

Maybe I should give you a little history of Petra. Petra is located in the country of Jordan in the Middle East. It was inhabited around 2300 years ago, before the common era, by the Nabataeans. The Nabataeans were very advanced, having a water system compete with pipes, and monuments that were carved out of the rock, and so much more! Petra was also an important junction for the silk, spice and other trade routes that linked China, India and southern Arabia with Egypt, Syria, Greece and Rome. But they were conquered by the Romans and others, and they died out. (Why do the great ancient peoples always have to die out?!)

Anyway, we eventually got to the entrance of the Siq. The Siq is a narrow gorge that is over 1 kilometer long, which has 80-metre-high cliffs on either side of it. At some point you can see on the left hand side of the siq a water channel. It used to be covered, but long ago floods washed away the cover stones. Also around that point the road started to become paved in places. The paving wasn't bad considering it was first done around 2300 years ago. Just as we began wondering when the Siq was going to end, we saw the entrance to a huge clearing. And on the wall opposite the opening was the kind of thing that just takes your breath away-it was called The Treasury (look at picture). Remember that this was built in the 3rd century BC. Technology was very primitive back then, yet they still found tools to build this!

Dad and I walked around for eight hours-whew! We went all over, to the Monastery, to the museum, to all sorts of places. It was so fun! And, guess what? I rode on a camel on the way back! It was so cool, even though my legs got sore. I am so totally going to badger Mom to let us ride camels in Egypt! Petra was really cool. Our hotel room was...well, lets just say it would've been nice if everything didn't break down in it. The TV didn't work so they brought a new one in, there was no handle on the bathroom door, the fan didn't work, and the bed collapsed when Dad sat on it! Also, at 5:00 am we were awoken by the call to prayer, which is 5 times a day in Muslim countries. It was so beautiful, there was the one main voice chanting and then a chorus of other, softer, voices that "sounded like angels", Dad said. The next day we took a bus to Amman.