Petra
I spent an hour alone atop the mountain, sharing tea with the local guides and clapped along to their undulating songs, accompanied by a round, half-moon guitar.
I cannot say enough about this place. If I could, I would stay longer. If I must, I have to return. There are so many places in Jordan that I've missed: Wadi Rum, Jerash, Aqaba, Salt, Wadi Araba... But then again, I got to see:
It's true. The mystique, the wonder, the sheer scale and utter surreal-ness of the place is overwhelming. It sucks you in from the first moments of dawn and leaves you exhausted, drained from too much "I can't believe that something like this exists -- I can't believe that it's this old -- I can't believe that people created this, built this, molded this -- I can't believe it."
I'm glad I had slide film for this one. The photos, I think, will be incredible.
Petra was made famous by Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. But that film doesn't do the city enough justice, preferring to focus only on one of its jewels, the Treasury. In contrast, there are hundreds of monuments worthy of exploration – hundreds of columns, of grand doorways and friezes, mazes and obelisks, caves and pools...
Petra is huge. You can spend weeks exploring the facades, the temples, the high places of sacrifices. I spent eleven hours, from dawn til sunset.
You walk through the Siq, a gorge – a canyon – smoothed over time by wind and water, before reaching the entrance of the city, where the massive Treasury awaits, carved into sheer rock and mountainside. It's about a 30 minute walk from the start to the Treasury.
At dawn, there was a little girl riding a donkey into the city proper, singing a capella in Arabic. Sheer magic – her tremulous voice, the pink-orange walls, the cobblestone streets.
At some points, you cannot fathom that there are openings ahead – the walls, some 6-7 stories high above, converge into such narrow paths that twist and turn – and yet, if you continue, stepping through them, what awaits is elevated pure joy.
Niches carved by the Nabateans, the merchant-kings, adorned the way, cradling busts of Greek heroes, birds and fishes, or inscriptions detailing a forgotten history.
The Treasury, even with fame, still enchants. It's one of the few places in the world that instantly knocks your breath away, no matter how much you prepare for it. When I finally round the corner, gasped, and saw the pillars and entrance way rise up before me, two camels lay lazily in front of the entrance, twitching their silly noses and staring at me with heavy lidded eyes.
After the Treasury, the Siq opens up into many valleys, dotted with Nabatean structures. Under clumps of olive trees, little boys cry advertisements for donkey rides, or camel treks -- shouting 'Thank you, You're Welcome!' whenever tourists pass.
But even as the most developed tourist spot in Jordan, Petra retains that stillness, that calmness that I found lacking in places like the Forbidden Palace or Angkor Wat. Sure, there are attempts to sell trinkets and rides – but scramble up and over a few rocks, climb up to a hilltop or just go off the beaten path, and you can leave all that behind and be alone.
It took me an hour to climb up to the primary High Place of Sacrifice, where blood sacrifices once took place (whether there were human sacrifices, hard to say). Along the way, short trees lined the path, and the canyon walls glowed pink, yellow and red, streaked with mineral deposits that formed brilliant colored waves etched into rock. At the top, four crumbling obelisks surrounded a large sacrificial basin, and the 360 degrees panorama offers views of Jebel Aroun (Aaron of Leviticus' tomb), the Monastery in the distant, and Petra city itself.
There was a crazy cat that lived up there – the only cat I know to moan when I left and constantly rubbed herself against me (me lying there looking up at the clouds) and purred..
Halfway down, my breath ragged, I looked up to see two Bedouin men, puffing on their pipes, their red checkered headscarves thrown rakishly around their heads, eyes twinkling. "Why don't you go down the other side?" they asked. "Very nice." My pride prevented me from telling them that no way in hell would I descend the sheer drop without a guide. "You want donkey?" they asked, smiling those knowing smiles. I declined, preferring to go down my own way – plus, I had eyed a tea stand at the bottom of the hill already. "Ok. Welcome, welcome to Jordan!" they replied.
On the way down, behind me, I could hear the two men, singing – their voices echoed against the sandy walls, one answering the other, before eveloping in a rush of dialogue. Their donkeys brayed in unison.
It took me another five hours to drift through the Royal Tombs – huge facades carved into the East Cliff --Byzantine era churches with be-speckled mosaics, the marketplaces and colonnade streets of the city center, and crumbled and newly discovered temples (one of them, the Great Temple, is under excavation by Brown University).
It took me another two hours to climb up the Monastery (1160 m), the highest point in Petra. The facade: Huge. Gigantic. Massive. The length from the ground to the edge of the door bottom was taller than the height of an adult!
I spent an hour alone atop the mountain, sharing tea with the local guides and clapped along to their undulating songs, accompanied by a round, half-moon guitar.
That was my afternoon. I lay on a divan, listened to the strains of furious fingers against mad strings, gazed at the accomplishments of people who lived two thousand years ago, and thought about how blessed I was. The sun, when it blushed, hit the Monastery in lush oranges and pinks.
Thank goodness for the low tourist season. Throughout my day in Petra, I was mostly alone – and there's something to be said about exploring ancient ruins by yourself. Any other time, and the main thoroughfare would be crowded with tour groups. I walked the Siq alone, stood atop the High Place of Sacrifice alone, and contemplated the setting sun against the Monastery alone.
Petra has been the highlight – but not all of the highlights so far. And in the 9 months I've traveled, Petra has stood out as a definite must-see, low on expectations but so so high on rewards – a consistently (I think) underrated place, but one that will transport you to parts of your brain that you don't often use in the everyday – wonder, astonishment, joy, serenity – peace.
Over-the-top, I know. But Petra is like that. Can't help but let your jaw drop.