Little Red City (Little Petra ~ Jordan)

November 2019

Siq Al Barid aka Little Petra is about 20 minutes drive north of Petra or, if you're game, a three to hour walk via unmarked trails. We found out that on average two groups per week attempt this walk (without a guide and relying on Google maps) and get lost. Couple that with the risk of flash floods in the Wadis (valleys) this time of the year I think driving between them is a far better idea.

Little Petra is aptly named as, when we later visited the real Petra, we found it really is a smaller version of it with a Siq (narrow gorge entrance), temples, tombs, cisterns, water channels and frescoes.

From end to end it's less than half a kilometre. At the far end (and through a narrow crevasse) is the start of the trail to Petra. We (Sue) decided that we could find an alternative route back to the start of Little Petra from here and we spent half an hour or so attempting this. Almost made it but a very narrow 4m drop stymied us. We later found out that this was a good thing as the sector beyond the 4m drop did indeed take you back into little Petra BUT had also been used as a toilet.

Looking down from the end of the Siq

Before  we had to turn back.

I would like to point out at this stage that I (Richard) was the voice of caution especially re risk of flash floods. I got a  disbelieving look from Sue when I said this.

Just around the corner from Little Petra is the remains of a 9,000 year old Neolithic village called Beidha. Admittedly there is not much left (so little in fact that we didn't take any photoes) but, according to the experts, there was enough to indicate that it was one of the first transitions from hunter gatherer nomads to settled agriculturalists.

Next stop is Big Petra...