October 6, 2000
(10-06-00)
Today is Saturday, and we went to Petra, Jordan. We had to walk through the Israel border, and then take a taxi to the Jordanian border and the walk through there. Then we rented a taxi for a couple of hours to go to Petra. It was about a two-hour drive from where the border was to Petra. We ate lunch there, which wasn't all that good. We had to back in a couple of hours because the Jordanian border closes at 7pm, because there was a holiday coming up in a day or so. Then we walked through Petra it is wow. You walk through these tunnels, well they aren't really tunnels but they rocks are so close together sometimes. After walking a hour or so, we went back to our taxi and then we drove back to the Jordanian border. Then had to take a taxi to the Israel border, and then walk through there and then the Egypt border. We were back in Egypt about 7 or 8 at night. Then we spent the night at the Taba Hilton.
Stuff about Petra:
Hidden amongst the ancient canyons of Jordan's south is Petra, the most mystic and glorious of Jordan's national treasures. An eternal tribute to a lost civilization, Petra is the highlight of a trip to Jordan. Carved entirely into the naturally pink rocks, the remains of the once lost Nabataean City of Petra include temples, Roman theaters, monasteries, houses and roads. From the entrance a track leads you down to the Siq - the narrow gorge that takes you into Petra. Once inside, the path narrows as the cliffs seem to close about you, and just as you least except it, the passage widens and you catch a glimpse of the astonishing monument the dominates Petra El Khazneh (The Treasury).
History:
Petra is the legacy of the Nabataens, an industrious Arab people who settled in south Jordan more then 2,000 years ago. From a hidden staging post, they dominated the trade routes of ancient Arabia, levying tools and sheltering caravans laden with Arabian Frankincense and myrrh, Indian spices and silks, African ivory, and animal hides.
At the height of its power, the Nabataen Kingdom stretched to Damascus and included parts of the Sinai and Negev deserts, effectively ruling the greater part of Arabia. Petra became widely admired for its refined culture, massive architecture, and ingenious complex of dams and water channels. Ultimately however, its increasing influence and prosperity was seen as a threat to Rome, and in 106 AD, the Emperor Trajan annexed the Nabataean Kingdom into the Roman province of Arabia with Petra as the capital. Once the Romans took control of the trade routes, however, diverting them towards Bosra in present day Syria, Petraņ³ ¤ecline was swift and inevitable.
By the sixteenth century Petra was completely lost to the West, and so it remained for almost 300 years. Then, in 1812, a Swiss adventurer named Johann Burckhardt persuaded his Bedouin guide to take him to the site of the rumored lost city. Secretly making notes and sketched, he wrote, "it seems very probable that the ruins as Wadi Musa are those of the ancient Petra."
Despite its rediscovery by Burckhardt, it was not until 1924 that the first archaeological excavations were carried out in Petra, under the supervision of the British School for Archaeology in Jerusalem. Modern archaeological research by both Jordanian and foreign teams has since unearthed various areas of the city, revealing much insight into the lives of its ancient inhabitants.
Mot of Petra's appeal comes from its spectacular setting deep inside a narrow gorge. From the main entrance you walk into the chasm or siq, threading your way between the cliff walls as they soar 100 meters, you pass inscriptions in ancient languages and rock - cut chambers carved into the whorls of sandstone.
Petra's most famous monument, the Treasury, appears dramatically at the end of the siq. Used in the final sequence of the film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, this towering facade is only the first of Petra's secrets. Various walks and climbs reveal hundreds of buildings, facades, tombs, baths and haunting rock drawings and reliefs. You find a 7,000 - seat theater from the time of Jesus, a Palace Tomb in the Roman style, a gigantic First - century Deir (Monastery), and what was believed to be the modest shrine of Aaron, brother of Moses, high atop Mount Aaron. |
