My plan for today was to scope out the laundromat. But when we woke up it was snowing again. It had stopped by the time I dropped off the guys (warning them that if the weather was bad I was going to pick them up earlier. I didn't was a repeat of the last slippery trip.)
I decided to wait until about noon to see how if it had really stopped. (At 11:30 really coming down again. Guess I'm here again for the day.)
Back to the trip:
We left Amman and drove by the King's highway to Petra:
If you look carefully, you can see the River Jordan just above the road in the upper middle of the picture.
We stopped at the mosaic city of Madaba, where they have a fabulous mosaic map of the Holy Land with all of the important sites. It dates from about 570 AD. This is the Jerusalem section:
We also stopped at a mosaic workshop to see how they are made (and also to buy.) One nice thing about OAT is that they don't push the shopping. We stop at places that they recommend, but don't feel that we are locked in until we purchase. (You can tell I've had some unfortunate experiences along these lines. In India it was terrible. We would have a short visit somewhere and then a loooong visit at a "factory/store".
We also stopped at Mt. Nebo. This is supposedly the burial site of Moses and overlooks the Dead Sea and in the far distance Jerusalem.
There were also some fabulous mosaic floors on display. I made a mosaic once, for an art class in college. (The famous fish that my father made into a table. When you see it, you know that he loved me - because it wasn't worth the effort!) I can really appreciate the work and talent that goes into all of these.)
We spent the night in a hotel in Petra so that we could get an early start for our visit.
Petra is an incredible place. Buildings are carved out of the rock. For those of you who saw the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade with Sean Connery, when they come through the narrow narrow crevice to the "Treasure House", that is Petra.
It was built as a holy place and is completely hidden from above. There was a trade route close by. Until recently, another tribe had taken over the area as a place to live. The government decided to make it a tourist attraction and moved the tribe to a modern village close by, but they have the rights for all the concessions of horses rides, camel rides and souvenir selling. I think the whole group is employed. Small cute children are dressed in native costume and know the exchange rate for every currency known. They looked to be about the ages of my grandchildren. (6 1/2 & 4) When you see them, you realize that our children are so protected and are not expected to contribute to the family income.
I chose to ride a horse to the entrance to the crevice. This was part of the tour - but I held off making the decision until I saw that it was really more like a pony ride. Someone leads each horse. My horse's name was Lena:
That's Vicky just behind Lena.
The souvenir shop had examples of frankincense & myrrh. The frankincense looks sort of like amber and the myrrh is a ground berry in a very intense red.
Then we started walking through the Siq (Shaft).
It has narrow areas, wider areas, and if it rains it is very dangerous, because the water rushes through it. Several years ago a group of tourists were killed. They had to evacuate people just after we arrived in Jordan. We were lucky and had a beautiful day.
The early people created water channels:
As we got closer we had a glimpse of the end:
Almost there:
Finally, the "Treasure House." It really was a temple completely carved in the rock. There is damage to the upper levels caused by people taking potshots at it.
Looking from the steps of the Treasure House, you can see the narrow slit we came through.
After the temple area, the valley spreads out. There is more Greco-Roman in that area:
This amphitheater was carved out of the rock. There were also more caves where people had lived. Prior to 1985 all of the tribe-people were born in one of these caves:
At the end of the valley was a Crowne Plaza Restaurant where we had lunch:
That's Chuck, Joan, Larry, Maggi, Linda & John:
The salads:
Grilled meats and great freshly made falafals:
After lunch, Larry climbed up to the Monastery. 850 steps up - I don't think so. Maggi, Chuck and I wandered back and joined others of our group at a local hotel for a beer.
It was a really big day. Chuck was so tired he skipped dinner and went to bed.
Petra is on the BBC's list of 40 must see places in the world and it is possible to ride a carriage through the Siq and a camel to the restaurant. (But I must warn you that those are hard, too.)
For more about Petra see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petra
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