Petra Day 1

Cross it off the list.

And here’s the post I’ve been avoiding. Ever since I met Molly, she’s been talking about going to Petra. After she gave me just the briefest description, I was in. Having adopted Molly’s most desirable travel location as my own, it was only a matter of time. We both knew that before our time was up in Abu Dhabi, we had to go. You see? Visiting Petra was both a lifetime goal and a friendship goal… a simple blog post could never do it justice. But I’ll try.

We headed towards the entrance of Petra bright and early. It’s was windy and cold and just a bit miserable. Thank goodness we had the site of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade to look forward to!

As you enter the ancient city, you walk down the Siq. Sandstone cliffs stand 150 meters above you. At times the opening between the rocks (created by a tectonic split in the rock) is only 2 meters wide. I’d imagine this would be a very special experience in the absence of other tourists and the stinky horse drawn carriages. As you near the end of the over 1 kilometer long entrance, you get a little glimpse of what lies ahead.

There she is, the Treasury. The Treasury is the most photographed and best preserved of all the monuments in Petra. It stands several stories high and was carved out of the rock.

The Treasury is impressive. However, I must admit… a lot of my personal excitement at this moment was due to this little guy:

Next up was a somewhat strenuous hike to the High Place of Sacrifice. The ancient Nabataeans performed important rituals here.

The hike back down led us past some other temples and sights that I suspect receive much less attention from visitors. Then we headed out to a few more popular ones.