What can I say about Petra? Everyone
must go there. It is likely the most beautiful place on the planet. It says a lot that once you get past the flashy stuff at the beginning it still finds ways to impress. For those who don't know this is where they filmed the end of
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. It was the resting place of the Holy Grail at the end of the Canyon of the Crescent Moon. There's a reason they used this site. It is the most impressive entrance that one can get to a city. More on that when I get there.
The modern town built outside Petra is called Wadi Musa. I don't believe that this town has any natural resources to justify its size apart from the tourists at Petra. This is as close as you can get in Jordan to a purely tourist town. To get around in Wadi Musa it is important to know the value of things. For example, taxi drivers charge whatever they think they can get away with. If you don't know better you'll end up paying them 5 or 6 dinars just to drive you to the top of the hill. That should really cost about 1. If you know that and show yourself willing to argue about it they'll usually negotiate a lower price. Hotels likewise. By the time I got out of Petra I was too exhausted to haggle over prices. That was a big mistake. The taxi driver followed me into the hotel, assessed my 'chump' level by my acceptance of 30 dinars for a 15 dinar room and charged me accordingly. Some hotels don't have heating. They may or may not mention this. If you think it doesn't get cold in the desert, you're wrong. There is nothing to store heat in a desert which means that it gets real cold real fast. So even if you're dead tired making even a little effort to haggle is a good idea.
At the bottom of Wadi Musa is the trail to Petra. Wadi Musa is like a big funnel: as you get closer to the bottom all roads dump you at Petra. The entrance fee is the most exhorbitant I've ever seen. Everything else in Jordan is dirt cheap, but Petra costs about 60 dinars ($100 or ₤60) to get in. If you're going to be there for multiple days then pay for it in advance. It's only about 10 dinar more for a 2-Day pass than it is for a 1-Day so it's definitely worthwhile to buy them at the same time. I was there for an afternoon and a day so I got the 2-Day Pass. The city itself is about a mile and a half away through a really impressive canyon. There will be a lot of walking required at Petra. If you don't want that and you have the money you can hire a horse to get you to the canyon and a donkey to get you up to the monastery. Camels are also available. All these animals come complete with Bedouin guides. They own them so they're not going to let them out of their site, especially when they're being used by silly tourists who've never ridden a camel before. Imagine!
I wouldn't recommend the horses myself. They don't take you as far as you think and the walk through the canyon is easy and flat. You can rent a carriage to get you through the canyon itself but again what's the point? It's a nice walk. The monastery is a rather more difficult climb and likely to tire anyone out. Whether you hire a donkey to get up that depends on how much money you have to spend and how comfortable you are with heights. The steps up go right alongside giant cliffs and the donkeys tend to walk along the outside. I couldn't do it.
Whoever decided to build a city in here was a genius. Try getting an army through this canyon and then fighting on the other side. There is room for five or six abreast but I wouldn't want to chance it. On the other hand when you get to the other side and realize that the city is built right on a plain and that any army could simply march around these rocks it seems less brilliant. Essentially this entrance must have been for show. The other sides of the city are far too open and wide for any sort of real defense. But what a show it is! The walls of the canyon go straight up for several hundred feet with almost no slant. The ground is perfectly flat. The numerous twists and turns mean that you can never see for more than a hundred feet or so except in the occasional open areas.
And then at the end you get this. This is the most famous image of Petra, the so-called 'Treasury.' It is a damned impressive building, not the least so because of how you get to it. You walk through and suddenly the canyon walls open for you and there it is.The Treasury. A giant building carved out of the cliff wall itself. I have no idea how they built it or why but it is clearly designed to impress. It's actually a tomb for some important king of the Nabataeans, the builders of Petra. The reason it's called the Treasury is because local legend had it that that's what it was. The little dome that looks like an urn on the top of the central spire was supposed to be filled with treasure. If you look closely you can see that it's pockmarked with bullet holes from all the people who tried to shoot it down. All of the buildings carved into the rock in this style are tombs except for one at the top which was a temple. Naturally they call it the Monastery. The houses are smaller, one-room buildings built into caves while the administrative buildings were probably built more normally from the ground up.
The canyon leading to the treasury ends there. The Treasury is in another canyon that runs perpendicular to it. To the left it ends after only a few hundred feet but to the right it continues on to the main city.
As I said earlier the mouses are built into the sides of the cliff. These ones here are pretty nice ones. Many of the others are nothing more than dignified caves. Opposite this are more giant tombs built into the cliffs. Next to it is the Roman-style theatre also carved out of the rock. A lot of these homes are still lived in, although not on a permanent basis. The entire valley is filled with Bedouin. They run the tours, rent the camels, run stands, and basically live here. It is impossible to go through the city without having one of them try to sell you something. My advice: be firm but don't offer polite lies. They don't like you lying to them and they will take it personally. The government seems to have an arrangement with the Bedouin since they also maintain and clean up the site. Bedouin are nomads so they are used to moving around, although many of these guys look pretty stationary. They do still sleep on the ground by their stalls or occasionally in one of the cliff houses. If you go through there at night (not recommended. It gets dark quick and footing can be treacherous) you will see them sitting around their campfires. This area is still a major caravan site as well, and you can see Bedouin hauling their goods on camels outside the valley. There is still a well-used trail on the left-hand side of the valley.
The Bedouin are odd ones for sure. They have a code of behavior that is very foreign to Western eyes. They are proud of being nomads and they don't seem to crave all the creature comforts that most people do. They should certainly be able to afford regular houses if they so chose. Even if the government takes a cut of what they make selling their goods in the city they must still be doing fairly well off it. They also have a strange code of honor and honesty. They will lie to your face about what they're selling you; they will sell you fake goods; they will cheat you and do anything they can to make a profit off of you, and yet I had the strong impression that if I had asked one of them to hold onto my money for me they would feel bound to do so until I returned. They have a very direct approach to things. As I said before, if you tell them a polite lie like, "I'll be back tomorrow," or "I don't have the money," they will take it personal. It's quite clear they consider people who do that to be unscrupulous liars and most people feel the same way about them because of their shady business practices. I think that a lot of that comes from the absence of Western courtesy.
Western Europe developed into a courtly culture during the Middle Ages which involved telling polite lies, speaking kindly even when you don't mean it, and not allowing their real emotions to be displayed. It has never really lost that. The Middle East never really had that, or if they did it vanished after the Ottoman Empire showed up. The Ottomans treated every area that wasn't Turkey like a colony. Jordan was just an outlying region that they exploited for their own purposes. More than that the Bedouin never really adapted to civilization to begin with. There are tales of them from the Middle Ages which makes them sound much the same as they are now. What that means is that they are a lot more blunt and direct in their approach and they are not afraid of being rude. If you say you don't want something then they may keep trying to convince you but they'll accept it with relatively good grace in the end. If you tell them a polite lie they will know you're lying and treat it as an insult because for them that signals a lack of respect. That's my take on it anyway, and whether you agree with me or not if you've been there you'll know what sort of behavior I'm trying to explain. I suspect that the far East thinks similarly of us because there's is a very formal culture. Everything must be done in the proper way and just because something works better doesn't mean it was done correctly. I imagine that the Bedouin regard our behavior in much the same way we regard the Chinese. They think it's a silly and artificial way of approaching things and it gets in the way of actually doing things.
The main stretch of Petra is a small plain between the mountains. This was the heart of the city and had the temples, churches, administrative center, and the forum. Most of those buildings are gone now but you can still see the ruins where they were. It's flat and sandy now but originally it was tiled and would have been where people met and traded. It's hard to imagine this area as a Roman city but for several hundred years that's exactly what it was. One of the tombs is inscribed with a Roman name meaning either that a rich benefactor chose to be buried here or a local noble adopted a Roman name.
To the left up the hill is one of the temple complexes. There's not much left of it except for a few pillars. On the right hand side there is an old church in a similar level of preservation but with finely made mosaics.
There's another church on the same side but slightly further along. This one lacks the mosaics but has a great many pillars still intact including two impressive blue ones.
Looking back you can see the whole valley. Those buildings built into the cliffs are the other tombs. To the right on top of the cliffs is a place called the High Place of Sacrifice. I never had time to go up there which was unfortunate. It really does take several days to do Petra. It's possible to do most of it in one day but you'll have to rush it.
The far end of Petra leads into another valley, but I don't know if they have any houses down there. You can see the valley from up above and it doesn't look very hospitable.
To the right of the valley the path continues on leading up the mountain. This marks the end of the core of the city. On top of the mountain is the Monastery but there are almost no buildings apart from that.
This stairway carved out of the rock leads to the very top of the mountain. It is one hell of a long walk. This is the section where I mentioned donkey rides. That's the only way up at this point. I saw several donkeys walk past carrying goods and supplies to the people on the top. They do indeed have stores up there in addition to the regular Bedouin stands, but the prices are rather higher. I can't say that it's that surprising. If you do make the attempt it's important to bring water or something with you. I didn't and I discovered that I didn't have enough money when I got to the top. I should also note that this was January and I was still roasting. I don't even want to imagine the place in summer.
Yeah... There are a lot of stray cats in Petra. There are a lot of stray cats in Jordan in general, but Petra is particularly heavy with them. If you're a soft touch (like me) then you may want to pick up some snack food to feed them on the way. They may follow you around if you do that, but then they'll follow you around anyway. Pay any attention to them and they'll stick to you like glue, at least until someone else with food comes along. I felt particularly sorry for this cat because it only had three legs and was hiding in one of the more isolated areas. I imagine there must be plenty of food for these animals but it still can't be easy for a three-legged cat in a canyon which requires a lot of jumping. I wonder if it's still alive?
The canyon goes up for ages. Walking up stairs is never easy and it wore me out. The Bedouin are made of sterner stuff because they lead their donkeys up there several times a day. I can't even imagine doing that.
When you get to the top this is the first thing you'll see. The open cave used to be some sort of temple. They have a sketch of what it may have looked like. But it isn't the truly impressive site.
When you turn around you're confronted with this. This is called the Monastery. It isn't, it was almost certainly a temple. They only called it a monastery because there was a cross carved in there but given the number of tourists who went there I wouldn't be at all surprised if one of them carved it. It could also have been carved when the Christians became the dominant religion in the city. It wasn't a church though since they have a couple of those in the center of the city.
There's nothing much inside the Monastery. Nothing worth the climb up which is difficult. The entrance is about six feet above the ground and there are no stairs or anything. Most people have someone push them up but it is possible to climb using grooves in the rock.
You can go a little bit further than the Monastery. When I was finished with it I went to see the view. There are three main hills on the top all of which offer a great view of the valley on the other side.
The view from the top is simply extraordinary. Pictures cannot do it justice. You can see for miles around, still the same reddish-pink rocks that you find in Petra.The hills and cliffs are everywhere. You can even see tiny Bedouin in the distance leading their camels.
After that there's not much else to see up there. There is a restaurant where you can be served by people wearing traditional Bedouin dress. It looks like something out of Lawrence of Arabia. They also have a hookah lounge built into a cave. By this point it was getting late in the day so I decided to head back down. I had to get across the border tonight since Petra had already used up an extra day. Aqaba is about an hour away from Petra and there is a servee that was supposed to leave around four. Unfortunately, it had already left by the time I got down. While everything had worked perfectly on my first day in Jordan everything went wrong on my last. The border was supposed to close at 7 so I had to get a taxi for 35 dinars. I got across the border no problem. My flashlight caused problems since it looks like some kind of remote detonator. It's a big metallic thing and they had to run explosives checks all over it. They did the same thing when I was entering Jordan. Anyway, I got a taxi to the Eilat bus station where I just missed my bus to Tel Aviv. Eilat has no buses to Jerusalem so I needed to catch that bus and then get another bus in Tel Aviv. Unfortunately it was about 7 and the last buses left Tel Aviv for Jerusalem at around midnight. It's a five-hour bus ride from Eilat to Tel Aviv so I wouldn't get there before 1 in the morning. I took a gamble and got on it anyway. There was no reason to stay in Eilat after all. Sure enough it arrived at Tel Aviv at around 1 AM and there were no buses in sight. There's a train station in Tel Aviv that connects up with Jerusalem but it was also closed and the airport's sherut (Israeli servees. Taxi/buses) service which I was betting on had also shut down for the night. So I was stuck in Tel Aviv at 1 in the morning with no place to go. Not a good situation. I ended up hiring a taxi to take me to Jerusalem. It cost me 350 shekels ($100 or ₤60) and I'd probably have been better off finding a hotel at that point. The taxi driver assured me I'd never find one for cheaper than that but he wasn't exactly an uninterested party was he? My better option would have been to wait until the last bus leaving Eilat (around 1 AM) and then slept on the bus. By the time it got to Tel Aviv the bus service would have been running again. Anyways I got into Jerusalem at around 2 AM. The driver refused to let me off at the Jaffa gate because Jews aren't allowed to park there apparently. I'm not sure why that is since it's between the Christian and the Armenian quarters but there seemed no point in objecting. My hostel let me in no trouble. I was worried I'd be locked outside since I didn't know the password but there was a guy inside who heard me knocking. So after that
very long day I finally settled down for a good long sleep.
So, my final impressions of Jordan: It's a very nice place. It is undeniably poor and squalid but the people are friendly and most things are cheap. It is possible to survive on only English (I did) but a little Arabic would really help. Most people know a little English, but not much.Especially if you're going to out-of-the-way places you want to know enough to ask for basic essentials. People worried about traveling in a Muslim country are likely to be in for a pleasant surprise. They are extremely religious but the level of fanaticism is pretty low. Jordan keeps a close watch on its neighbors and people with terrorist links or ideals are chased out. The government really hates terrorists and the feeling is undoubtedly mutual. The only terrorist incident that I heard of in Jordan was when Al-Qaeda bombed a wedding party. This was in 2002 or so and the reaction in Jordan was predictably furious. The point is that they weren't targeting foreigners and tourists but local civilians. Clearly they aren't expecting much support from Jordan. As far as the Middle East goes it's pretty well off. And that's sad. The nicest example of the highly religious nature in the country came from a guy I was talking to at Karak. He said that the Muslim religion was best and while I prepared for a rant he explained to me why. Christians, he said, have their holy day on a Sunday, Jews on a Saturday, but Muslims have theirs first which makes them the best! I thought that that was a wonderful example of devotion without prejudice. Talking with other people who had similar experiences I get the impression that the general belief is that Islam is clearly the superior religion, but other religions have things to offer as well. That's the best kind of religious devotion that I've heard. That isn't to say that they're to fond of Israel. You can hear my own opinions of Israel and Palestine in that section, but the Jordanians find the Israelis to be rude and aggressive. Still, surprisingly little anti-Jewish sentiment from a country that borders them, has to take care of the people that they kick out, and feels a personal involvement with the Palestinians. It's hard to believe that Jordan was occupying Jerusalem less than 50 years ago.
I have to say that my opinion of Jordan improved a great deal while I was there. Most of this was the people I met and the natural beauty of the country. Part of it was just adapting to the nature of the country. Part of it was those little prejudices that everybody has but tries to pretend they don't. After seeing enough images of Iraq in the news with snipers everywhere and armed troops afraid to move through the city it was rather worrying to walk through cities that look exactly the same. Iraq borders on Jordan and the terrain and towns look very similar. In fact, I give serious props to
The Hurt Locker for filming in Amman because it really does look like Iraq. Even my roommate says so and he's served in Iraq. You do get accustomed to it after a while though. The government in Jordan isn't that great. One well-traveled local said that, "in other countries they always treat you like a human being. In Jordan they sometimes do." I heard very little criticism of the king but the government is somewhat harsh and corrupt. Speaking of the king he has his picture plastered up on every wall and building in the country. Just to remind people that he's there I suppose. I can't go hating on the guy though because he's a massive
Star Trek fan. He even guest starred in an episode of
Voyager when he was still a Prince and he is very good at projecting concern and enthusiasm. He narrated a documentary for the Discovery Chanel on Jordan and the many wonders of the country. Anyway, whatever problems the government has it's still one of the best and most stable in the region. Right now Syria's in revolution, Egypt and Tunisia have had one, and Libya is getting bombed back to the stone age. Jordan has had a few protests which led to the king sacking the government and calling for a new one. The government might not be great but it's still more popular than their neighbors. I should mention incidentally that all this happened long after I left the country. When I was there there had been riots in Tunisia but Egypt was still calm and Libya hadn't kicked off yet.
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