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Middle East - part IV
Amman, Petra, Wadi Rum desert
Hector Yague2005-10-07 17:04:47
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met at the hostel (an American and a New Zealander heading north towards Syria), and I grabbed a bus early the next morning.
But there was a surprise ambushing me in the southern region of the country... oh yes there was...
Petra
David Rico, if you're reading this text, let me tell you this: you don't know what you've missed out man. David is an old buddy from college. He has been living in Israel for the last few months working for the blood-sucking... errr I mean consulting company Accenture. He was supposed to meet me in Petra around this time of the year, but he finally went back to Spain couple of weeks ago to get started all the preparations for his future wedding (congratulations bro!).
Petra... oh man... Have you seen Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade? Do you remember the last scenes of the film, where he rides a horse through a deep canyon and, eventually, the canyon opens up into an open yard hiding a rose-red colored temple carved in the stone? well, that is Petra's entrance (also known as The Treasury)... And there is a hell a lot more to see further beyond...
Petra ranks up with Egypt's pyramids and Syria's Palmyra as the Middle East jewels (beats both in my opinion). Basically, it's a bunch of narrow canyons where an ancient civilization called the Nabeteans created an extensive complex of temples carved up in the rock during the I century BC. Now a days, it's Jordan's number one touristic attraction. Petra had been forgotten by the whole world (other than the local bedouins and their camels dwelling in the area) until a swiss explorer called Jean Louise Burckhardt rediscovered it for our pleasure early XIX century. God bless ole good Jean Louise!
You need two days to fully walk throughout the whole area, from The Treasury (entrance) to The Monastery (back-end).
...
See photographs from:
Jordan Gallery
