Petra

Having already gotten all the way to Israel, it made sense to take a few days to head over to neighboring Jordan for a visit to its most famous site, Petra (Greek for rock). Prior to visiting, the word Petra had made only an occasional blip on mind's radar, mostly in reference to a Christian rock band (I'm not sure whether they took their name from the place or the word), and also in a cultural reference much more widely known, the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. It turns out that the hotels nearby also know about how Petra appears in an Indiana Jones movie, and the one we stayed at happened to have the DVD. It was a nice little bonus I suppose.

This is the most famous site at Petra, the Treasury (where Indiana Jones finds the Holy Grail). Perhaps it's so striking to me because it looks like how I would imagine a city that dwarfs build in fantasy books like the Hobbit (which I've recently read in French). Unlike the book though, there isn't a city behind the facade, only a few dark chambers. This fact, however, doesn't take much away from Petra's mystique.

This is the Siq, which leads from the entrance to the treasury. The Siq is a mile-long, 300-600 feet deep cavern formed as the result of an earthquake. It's quite an amazing walk.

Petra was built by the Nabateans, who got rich controlling trade routes between the east and the west. They were independent for 6 or so centuries before the Romans took over in AD 106 (however, the Greek influence is quite obvious). Water management was crucial, and the large tree that has grown in the cistern below shows how skilled they were at trapping water. It's one of the few large trees in all of Petra.

Lots of people visit Petra. In the picture below, you can see a bunch of them walking down the stairs to the Urn Tomb.

This picture is here because I like the formation. Petra made me really wish I knew more about geology.

There are a number of lovely hikes around Petra and my favorite was this one through a long, narrow cavern. Hopefully you can get some kind of idea of how beautiful the formations were from the picture. That's Gabe and Cara traipsing down the path.