Traveling in Jordan: Day 3: The Red Rose City of Petra

Here I am standing near some djinn blocks.

The start of the pathway through Petra

Home and steps were carved into the rock.

Old inscriptions can be found on the rocks.

The passageways were very narrow.

This is where the people would collect water.

That's our tour guide. The stone is where people would worship God.

If you look at the stone behind me, it is actually the feet and stick of a camel herder. You can also see the belly of the camel to the left.

The treasury! The famous part of Petra, and where Indiana Jones was filmed.

This is amazing to be carved into the stone!

Incredible detail

This is were people were buried. The whole room would be for a family. 

Homes in the rock. No one lives there now, of course.

Some goats were just hanging out in Petra.

Petra! One of the truly spectacular sights of Jordan. Very unforgettable. We were up bright and early to see Petra, leaving our hotel by 8 or 9am. There is a lot to see here, and really you need more than 4 or 5 hours to see it, but we did see a lot in the 4 or 5 hours we spent there. One of the first cool sights were the djinn blocks (genie blocks). Genie, the spirit thing that comes out of the lamp in Aladdin. Anyways, these big block (shown in the 1st photo), were where the people believed that genies would hangout, so the people kept away, because the genie was viewed as not good. Later, it was found that these blocks were tombs, hence the thought of spirits being there. As we progressed through Petra, along with our tour guide, we saw many inscriptions in the stone, as well as sets of stairs and other various carvings. The passageway through Petra was very narrow, as you can see in many of the photos. There was also a water system which ran through the entire passage. The people from way back when created a canal system along the rock to capture water from the rain, so that no one would go thirsty. The rain water would run down the rock into the canal. Another thing we noticed a lot of was a carving in the stone of a rectangle, with a stone shrine carved around it. Our tour guide told us that this was how the people worshiped God. They made God as a rectangular figure so that God would haven't any distinct human-like features. It was really very interesting. There also were carvings of camel herders, as pictured above as well. You can see me standing, and the feet and stick of the herder is on the right, with the camel belly on the left. This was a resting place for camels during long journeys.

Finally, we reached the famous treasury. This is where Indiana Jones was filmed, and is one amazing sight! The entire front was carved out of stone long long ago. The detail is incredible. This is also one of those sights that pictures just don't do it any justice. It really is something you have to see with your own eyes. We were in awe at just how amazing it was. We even sat down and drank tea as we just stared at it. It was hard to imagine how people could have done something so amazing like this!

As we continued further down the path, we saw many more amazing carvings in the stone, and burial sights, too. You could see the many stone homes where people used to reside. There were many bedouins in Petra selling jewelry, but it was not authentic. Each bedouin had the same things as the previous. Everyone wants you to buy things there. There was even a little boy, about 3 or 4 years old, selling plain old rocks! And the funny part is that people actually stopped to look at his rocks and ask about them. I think they just felt bad because the boy wasn't wearing shoes and was a little dusty looking. 

We reached the bottom point, but not the end of the path, but it was time for us to head back. We had walked at least 1.5 miles, almost 2, just walking down. We began to walk back, and when we neared the top, we rode horses back to the very top, where we would meet our driver, have lunch, and then head towards the campsite, our next destination.