Petra is extraordinary.
A Swiss chap named Burckhardt rediscovered Petra in 1812 and we are so glad he did. The first sighting of The Treasury as you reach the end of the Siq is just breathtaking. The spectacle of the whole site is just wonderful. When you stop to think of the engineering involved in building such a city built into rock faces and that this occurred around the 3rd century BC it is even more amazing.
I would suggest spending two to three days at Petra. I really spent a couple of hours just walking to the Siq, through the Siq and then at The Treasury. It takes some time to walk from place to place at Petra so make sure you leave enough time. From the gate to The Treasury took me 45 minutes (yes I am slow!) to walk. Mind you I don’t like walking downhill much and I was taking advantage of the lack of tourists and taking quite a few photos. Surprisingly it took me 50 minutes to walk back up the hill. I was expecting there to be more of a difference than 5 minutes in walking down and up the hill.
The surface was uneven and changes from gravel to bumpy stones to a made pathway and back again. There are horse and carts continually travelling at break neck speeds up and down the hill through the Siq and you really have to keep an eye out for them so you don’t get knocked over. When you get into the Siq, which is not really a canyon so much as a gap between two rock landmasses, you think you must be quite close to The Treasury but it seems to go on forever. Just when you assign yourself to the fact that you may be walking for a good deal longer you sight just a slither of the rose coloured sandstone building. What a magnificent sight!
The Treasury is known as Al Khazneh and is the structure that featured in one of the scenes towards the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Unlike the film you cannot actually walk into the Treasury but the spectacle from the outside is worth it anyway. They say that it was built from the top to bottom by the Nabataeans and was actually a tomb. It gets its name from the misguided local belief that an Egyptian Pharaoh hid his treasure in the top urn. The masonry work on it is truly the work of master craftsmen.
The Nabataeans were an illusive and mysterious society, nobody is really sure how large their kingdom was. Some say it stretched from present day Yemen to Damascus (in Syria) and from Western Iraq into the Sinai desert. It is known, however, that their caravans were widely travelled. They were traders and nomadic but they built a great city at Petra. There is very little found that they have written about themselves – virtually no records kept and no libraries. More impressively they built this city hidden away so that you had to find the entrance through a ‘split’ in rock and then travel over a kilometre to eventually sight their buildings. They buried their Royalty and soldiers in rock tombs, there is also a 7,000 seat theatre and a colonnaded street which was once lined with shops. Unfortunately I simply ran out of time to see the Monastery which is a 40 minute climb. I believe the views are fantastic from on top the hill.
Another thing to prepare yourself for is the touts. They will approach you – a lot. I always try to be good natured and polite with them as this is their job, how they make their living. Most of them are local Bedouins including some children who work there after school. They were selling bangles and bracelets, camel rides, donkey rides, horse and cart rides, guided tours and booklets. Having said that I was polite I also had no money to give them so I just kept up a friendly banter with them and we both enjoyed it.
If you are staying in Wadi Musa (the nearby township) chances are you will be able to walk to the gates of Petra. My hotel, the Edom Hotel, was only about 500 metres to the entrance of Petra. It was a great location and there were souvenir shops and restaurants right around the corner. Tickets into Petra for adults were 50JD for a one day pass, 55JD for a two day pass and 60JD for a three day pass. It’s quite expensive but worth getting the two or three day pass. Please note: These prices were current in November 2015.
