Treasury - first glimpse |
Wall colours - Silk Tomb |
Abdullah, our Petra born and raised guide, pointed out details,
explained the history, and set rules – what was good to buy, where to use
donkeys, how to deal with the locals, and how much to pay (not much!) – and it
seemed everyone knew him – it made us feel oddly connected. And, he had good
advice: “You’re going to get a lot of people offering horse rides, silver
bangles, postcards… Don’t say ‘maybe, on the way back, or later’ they’ll see
that as a promise… …just say No”.
Young entrepreneur |
We climbed the more than 800 steps to the Monastery, on the donkeys
Abdullah negotiated for us; some stretches seemed almost vertical. My donkey
just jogged up, going right to the edge of precipices. I held on for dear life,
partly because my saddle wasn’t quite tight. And, frankly, shouting at me to
sit up straight didn’t help!
The Monastery |
The Monastery is a huge façade; it's large interior and the level plaza it dominates were all cut from solid mountain. A set of steps lead up to the top but these have been walled off after several tourists fell or jumped to their deaths… Still, you can see guys scramble to the top of the urn. But, that’s Petra – the amphitheatre is fenced off, but we saw a group of tourists pull back the fence to get in – a local guy was helping them.
Coffee at 7am |
I discover how fortunate we are to visit this
site now; before the Arab Spring, Petra saw 5,000 to 6,000 visitors a day; now
it’s more like 500 a day, a tenth of that. And in the early morning (6:30am),
it was deserted, save for the locals, and their animals.
Abdullah guided us up from the Monastery across the relatively tortuous mountain route, but that’s a story for the next blog...
Our highly recommended guide: https://www.facebook.com/abdullah.h.nawafleh
or https://www.facebook.com/TourInJordanPetra
Our highly recommended guide: https://www.facebook.com/abdullah.h.nawafleh
or https://www.facebook.com/TourInJordanPetra
*Petra features in the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
Royal Tomb Facades - Petra |