Big Red City (Petra ~ Jordan)

November 2019

Petra had been one of those places on our must see list for a long time and have to say we were blown away by it. Spent two long hot tiring days exploring it. The main route is from the entrance to the Siq through the middle and up to the carving known as the Monastry. There are also a few side trails that can be done.

We ended up doing the long trail to the high place of sacrifice and the trail that takes you to a view point high above the Treasury carving. Really good walking and very few people on these trails but on both of them there were spots where I really did not feel comfortable  (big drop offs). It was amazing that on both trails we were walking on original Nabatean processional routes.

The suq in little Petra is less than half a kilometre long the Siq into Petra proper is over a kilometre long.

Walking through the Siq takes you down a gentle incline and the remains of water channels carved into the sides of cliff faces are still evident.

Part way down the Siq are the well weathered carvings of camels been lead into and out of Petra - carved as trade was the life blood of Petra.

On exiting the Sig the first thing you see is the Treasury. Apparently called the Treasury as local legend had it that the carved urn at the top of the Treasury contained gold coins and you can still see bullet holes where locals have attempted to break open the urn.

I must admit I do not quite get the fascination of posing in front of a monument, like the woman below, for shot after shot (I stopped counting at ten) for that perfect shot and then leaving without even giving the monument in question a second glance.

Walking through Petra you cannot not be impressed by the sheer size and quantity of ruins .

Petra is comprised of a mixture of large open air structures such as temples, cisterns and amphitheatres and tombs that are carved out if the rock face (and are given fanciful names like "The Monastry", "The Treasury"). The one exception to this was this base relief carving of a lion. Originally it had a head (on the right hand side). Water fed by the channel visible would have then gushed from the mouth of the lion.

The only wildlife present (apart from donkeys, camels and goats) were bugs and lizards and even then they were thin on the ground but did spot these two. The bug was found near to what was once a cistern so am assuming there was some water about as it definitely looked aquatic in nature. 

The reason why Petra is called the Red City is because the rock it is carved out of is to a high degree red, but it is not until you get very close to some of the rock faces before you see some amazing shades of red.

From Petra we head south backtracking slightly to Wadi Rum.