City Post: Petra

Petra is one of the seven Modern Wonders of the World, and there was no way I was going to be this close to it and not go.

Getting to Petra was pretty easy. There is a nice bus terminal in Aqaba where you can buy tickets directly from the bus company, and where there is a waiting room similar to train stations in Europe (and, I would learn, other bus terminals in the region). So I hopped a minibus and took the few-hour journey up to Petra.

What I didn't realise until we were driving in was just how far down in the valley Petra was in relation to the city around it. It was at the bottom. Which seemed simple enough, as I'm no stranger to hills, but the hills there were so much worse than Porto or Lisbon. What goes down must come up, and the bus station was at the bottom of the hill and my hostel was at the top. I had planned on just walking the hill with my bags until I actually saw it. I decided just to pay the 5 JD for a taxi. Which was a good call, because I would walk it several times while visiting, and there was no way I would have made it with my bags.

The hostel was in the hotel style, with a mix of dorms, single rooms, a bar, and breakfast. Unfortunately, Petra was not immune to the economic downturn stemming from Gaza. The hostel had ceased offering breakfast unless you requested it, and they had totally ceased their dinner offerings. The bar was still open upstairs, but it was always empty. That was a shame, because it had a great view overlooking the valley. It also played Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade every night, because Petra features prominently at the end. I may have watched it a time or two.

I had been told to get to the archaeological site early so I could take in the views before the tourists came. The site opened at 6h00, and I had every intention of getting there early. But then I realised how few tourists there were, and decided to sleep in a bit my first day there. I walked down the hill, had falafel for breakfast, and then arrived at the site at around 10h. There was a big tour there getting tickets when I arrived, but I quickly realised that the site was pretty empty.

Once I walked past all of the souvenir shops, most of which were labeled as some Indiana Jones shop or café (although I'm sure none of them were licensed), I found myself walking alone. There were few people on the road leading into the site. The peddlers were all trying to get you to ride their horses up to the Al-Siq walkway. I'm sure their livelihoods from Instagram-seeking tourists cancelling their travel. Of course, they said it was included with the ticket, and you only tipped them. That was, of course, not true, and at least a 10 JD "tip" was required.

The walk in to the site was meh, but once I got to Al-Siq, I was mind-blown. This canyon was beautiful. It reminded me of the slot canyons you find in the United States. The colours, natural contours cut out by centuries of water flowing past, and the way the sun reflected and created shadows was just mesmerising. Everyone, me included, seemed to stop every 10 steps to take a picture of a newly-revealed angle. There were a couple of dammed up spots to prevent excess water from flowing in, but it wasn't hard to imagine what this walk must have looked like during the rainy seasons in years long past.

Past Al-Siq was where the true archaeological site began. I came straight out in front of the treasury, which was where the temple façade was filmed for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Unlike in the scene in the film, there was a series of shops set up outside offering snacks, coffee, tea, and souvenirs. There were a couple of tour groups, but nothing like it would have been in a true peak season. I took a couple of pictures, and then kept walking. It was a truly impressive site, but the inner workings are closed off to the public, so all there was to see was the façade.

From this point, there were several sites to see, and I made the decision to just put the blinders on and head to the monastery at the far end of the site. I would come back tomorrow to see anything I missed. I walked past the Roman theatre, the tombs, the Byzantine church, and more as I made my way toward the final trek.

Upon arrival at the first steps, I was bombarded with men trying to sell me a ride on their donkeys up to the monastery. I was on a budget, and the USD didn't go as far here as it did in past countries, so I opted not to hire one. Besides, I wanted to do the hike.

And what a hike it was. It was a beautiful hike through the canyon with amazing views, but it had more than a few stairs along the way, and I hate stairs. There were also makeshift shops along the way, most of them deserted, from locals who sell their trinkets, some of which is handmade and some of which is junk brought in from other countries. What struck me was how many of them were deserted. One lady explained to me that, two weeks before, the government came through and forced everyone to leave, because there was so little tourism as a result of the conflict in Gaza. She said most of them just hadn't returned, and that several of them that had were her relatives.

When I finally made it to the monastery, I was greeted by a man taking his donkeys back down the path. "You made it!" Yes, I did, and there was hardly anyone there. It was a crazy thing to think when combined with the advice to get there early to beat the crowds. Like the treasury, the inner sanctum was off limits to visitors, so I only got pictures from the outside. What was cool, though, was I didn't have to fight for a spot to get them like you see on one of those "Instagram vs. Reality" reels. I decided to grab lunch at the shop that was opposite the monastery and enjoy the view while I could.

Officially, the monastery was the end of the site, but there were a few signs pointing to the "Best View of Petra" which pointed farther down the path, and I decided to give them a shot. A couple of these were on rock formations which overlooked the monastery and gave fantastic photo opportunities. Naturally, they had been staked out by shop owners, but they were empty. It just wasn't worth it for them to return. At least I was able to get some cool photos unmolested.

A third path led towards the wadi, away from the site. A man had established a small shop there, and he was actually present. Granted, all he had was tea (which was fine by me, as I didn't plan on buying anything). His shop gave a great outlook out into the wadi, which looked to be deep canyons leading up steep mountain faces. You could shout from an outlook he had built and hear the echo come back. It was really, truly and impressive site. It is impossible to put into words what it was like to stand there looking out over the deep, water-carved canyon.

When I looked closer, I could see a small footpath curving along one of the cliff faces. On the one hand, it seemed ridiculous and stupid that someone would be walking a path like that. On the other, it was clearly happening. In the harsh environment of the desert, they were just made of tougher stuff than those of us living in the modern, cushy West.

At this point, it was getting close to closing time, and I had a solid 1.5 to 2 hour walk back to the entrance ahead of me, so I turned tail, put it in two-foot drive, and headed back. I ended up walking with a man escorting his donkeys back to the bottom at one point. As we were talking, they got a bit out ahead of us, and he excused himself so he could, "go chase my Lamborghini."

The walk straight back to the entrance was rough. It is a slight, but noticeable, uphill almost the entire way once you come down from the monastery. On the way in, I didn't notice how far it was, but when it came to just leaving, I surely did. My feet and knee were hurting, and I decided that I would grab a horse after Al-Siq if the price was right.

I'm not sure I would describe the price as right, but it cost me 10 JD to take the horse back up. As the man put it, "just a tip from the heart, but at least 10 JD." As horses go, they were small. Jo and I had talked about this a few times in MENA. The breeds they had there were smaller and skinnier than we were used to in the States. Nonetheless, it got the job done, and I got some pictures of me riding a horse through Petra.

Unfortunately, the worst was yet to come: the hill to the hostel. I walked it, but most everyone in my room grabbed a taxi. It was a brutal walk after hiking Petra all day, and I knew I would be repeating this horror the next day. The upside to it was the upstairs bar had a balcony that gave some great views looking out over the landscape as the sun went down.

The next day, I had a plan to see the Byzantine church, tombs, and hike some of the trails that jet off the main path. Down the hill and off to the site I went. I headed to the far end, just before the trail to the monastery started, and worked my way back towards the front. At least that way I wouldn't be in a rush at the end of the day.

I started at the Byzantine church. It was honestly a bit of a let down. Granted, it was still under archaeological excavation, but it wasn't as big or grandiose as I had expected given the surrounding structures carved into the mountains. What was impressive was the nearby Winged Lion Temple. It was in a serious state of disrepair and excavation, but it was quite clearly once a grandiose and important structure to the site's former inhabitants. Most of the temple was still buried by dirt and sand (where I was standing at the bottom was actually about 2-3 meters above where archaeologists think the true floor was). Sure, it was mostly just stacks of stone, but I still thought it more impressive.

Then I headed down to the Great Temple to take the hiking trail which led around its backside, off into the hills and canyons to the South of the main road, up to the High Place of Sacrifice, and eventually back to the main road next to the tombs.

I could not have asked for a more Middle Eastern hiking experience, I don't think. The colours of the canyon reflecting the sun, the dwellings and temples carved into the rock, and just the sheer view looking off into the distance was simply amazing. There were a few people on the trail, but not many. Just enough to make trying to get pictures annoying. I hiked past the Skull Cave, Tomb of the Roman Soldier, Garden Temple, and Lion Fountain as I made my was steadily uphill towards the High Place of Sacrifice.

The High Place of Sacrifice was exactly what it sounded like. It was a high place (on top of a rock formation overlooking the entire site) where sacrifices were once made (there was even an altar at the viewpoint). It was probably the second-most impressive view, after the view of the surrounding canyons from the day before. Even so, it was quite windy, so I only spent a bit of time up there. I didn't want to see my hat fly away (because I absolutely would have chased it down).

Before heading out, I decided to go check out the tombs. From the main path, they really just seemed to be more structures carved into the rock. They were, but the difference between these and the treasury and monastery was you could actually go inside. If the carvings themselves were impressive, then their inner rooms were nothing short of an architectural miracle. They were perfectly rectangular, with sharp 90-degree corners, flat roofs, and tall, vertical walls with no support beams or columns. One man and I had a short discussion about how miraculous these rooms were. Some were connected via comparably-shoddy doorways, and I definitely wandered around them a bit.

The architectural achievements notwithstanding, I did notice that none of the structures, including the monastery and treasury, went very deep into the rock. Certainly not as deep as one may have expected given the grandiosity of the façades outside. Granted, that's probably how they were able to stand for so long. An empty space couldn't hold up an entire cliff, after all.

Having learned my lesson from the day before, I decided to leave the site before I hit my exhaustion point. I didn't want to hate life too much heading up the hill to the hostel. When I got there, I took a shower and a nap. After two days of constant walking and exploring the site, I was wiped.

I left Petra on a bus for Amman the next day. Rather than pay the 5 JD I was sure I would be charged for a taxi, I decided to walk down the hill with all 20 kgs of gear on me. It honestly wasn't that bad, but my knees took a bit of a beating. It turned out that I was lucky to have gotten a bus ticket. The website was glitchy, and apparently didn't work for a lot of people. The gate attendant had told people to just show up and buy a ticket from the drive, but that apparently was only allowed when the manager was on duty. He wasn't that day. Luckily, after two afternoons of trying, I managed to get the electronic ticket to work, so I had no problem.

I didn't talk too much in this post about people I met. That's because 1) I was only there for 2 full days and 2) we were all on different itineraries. There were some cool people in my hostel room, though. One Irish guy (those are always fun) and one Indian-American. We had fun in the evenings joking about some of the ridiculous things we had seen in the region, from scams to food to cultural norms. When we got to the subject of there being almost no tourism, the Irish guy told us that he managed to secure a room in Wadi Rum for 1 JD per night (that's about 1.75 USD). We all felt bad for the business owners having to drop prices just to attract people, but, at the same time, it was great for us as travelers from the United States and Europe. That conversion from the USD and Euro to JD was abusive!

Where I Stayed: Nomads Hostel

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