The Rose City

What a fitting name for Petra. It is an amazing place, but must of been simply incredible 1800 years ago. Petra was built by the Nabataens, an ancient Arabian people who constructed a kingdom in southern Jordan about 2000 years ago. Petra was their capital.
We have just finished 2 exhausting days seeing everything Petra has to offer. Everything about Petra is dramatic. You start your visit by winding along a narrow 1.2km long passage called al-Siq until you start to glimpse views of the Treasury. The Treasury is the star attraction at Petra, primarily because it is the most complete and unaffected by erosion. Trying to fathom how the people managed to carve this enormous building out of the mountain is mind boggling. The entire site of Petra is very large and mostly carved out of the surrounding mountains, with monuments and tombs spread everywhere. The colour of the rock gives the city its nickname. Trails lead through the main part of the city and also up into the surrounding mountains where equally amazing buildings and views exist. Today we conquered the 800 step climb up to the Monastery at the far western point of the city. The Monastery is very similar to the Treasury, but slightly simplified. However, it is incredibly large and is well worth enduring the climb to see. Views from the Monastery are stunning and stretch all the way to Israel.
We have now completed our visit to Jordan and will be moving onto Egypt tomorrow. The Middle East proper has been fantastic and we will be telling everyone we meet that it is a wonderful place to visit. Hopefully our little blog my entice some of you to venture this way in the future.