A Day Out of Israel - Petra
We have been in Israel for nearly a year and we have just started to really travel...yes, we suck. So we decided that since our stay here is nearing its end, we had better get our tushies in gear and start touring. Top on our list of places to visit was the Israeli resort town of Eilat and the wonder of the world, Petra which lies in Jordan.
We took one of the city-to-city buses from Jerusalem to Eilat on Wednesday and thus sat through a 4 hour and 15 minute bus ride. For some reason, the first half of the trip nearly made everyone on the bus severely car sick, so we all had to pull out some plastic bags and have them at the ready "just in case." Luckily, the second half of the bus ride was much better and on the return trip we had no such problems.
We only really had the afternoon to spend in Eilat which was certainly not enough time to do everything. However, we did find time to walk along the rocky beaches and spend a bit of time snorkeling. I could go on for paragraphs and paragraphs about this, but I think this post will be too long already if I just focus on Petra. Let's just say that the water was the clearest I have ever seen and the fish were wonderfully colorful.
The next morning, we were picked up at 6:30 am from our hotel for our day-trip to Jordan to see Petra. Our friend, Eve, organized the trip and made reservations for a group of 13 of us to use Eco Tours. (It was a great trip and I recommend using them.)
Surprisingly, even though we were headed to an Arab country for the day, the scariest thing about the whole trip was our 10 minute ride to the Israel-Jordan border because the tour company picked us up in a safari jeep. Which means that we had to sit in the back of a jeep without seat belts and really feeling like one or many of us could fly out the open back or sides of the jeep. Eve had warned me about this part, but I had sincerely thought she must have been exaggerating. I quickly learned that she was not. As scary as it was, we all clung together and made it safely to (and later from) the border.
Since cars and buses are not allowed across the Israel-Jordan border, we were dropped off and then went through passport control on the Israeli side. Then we had to walk across a lonely, barren, no-man's land to get to the Jordan passport control. It was a strange feeling to be walking between two such countries.
Everything preceded smoothly and our Jordanian tour guide picked us up in a very large, comfortable, air-conditioned bus for our journey to Petra. It was about a two hour bus-ride from the border to Petra.
Immediately after getting off the bus, we all made a mad dash to the visitor's center's bathrooms (thank you, Eve, for reminding us to bring a roll of toilet paper!!). Then we were off to begin our 6 mile, 6 hour stay in Petra.
I have to admit that I knew very little about Petra before going there. I, of course, had seen the Treasury's fascade in Indiana Jones but I had not known that Petra itself used to be a city that contained about 25,000 people. The entrance to the city is a 900 meter (about half a mile) beautiful natural canyon, called the Siq. One of the amazing features of the Siq is that the people who lived here, built a water system that travelled all along both sides of the walls, carrying fresh water into the city.
The rock here is sandstone. Of varying degrees of hardness, sometimes the stone can by easily cut by a fingernail while other times is can only be cut using a chisel. One of the most amazing things about this sandstone are its natural colors. The varied minerals contained in the stone, each have their own vibrant color. In areas protected from wind and water, the colors are magnificent.
Petra was founded by the Nabateans, who lived in Petra beginning about 6th century BCE until the Romans took over the area in 106 CE. Most of the carvings are from the Nabateans, although there is still strong evidence of later Roman construction and development.
The Nabateans were a people who believed more strongly in the afterlife than they did in the present life (similar to the ancient Egyptians). Thus, they spent a lot of energy and time on their burial places. Within Petra, over 500 burial places have been found. Some of these are simple caves with very little adornment on the outside.
Some have the common "crowstep" design on the top which represents the body's climb to the afterlife.
A number of other crypts are extremely ornate. The "Treasury" (mis-named because some people thought there was treasure up in the urn at the top) is the best-preserved crypt. It was built as the final resting place for a king. It has three large rooms inside that were also carved into the rock. Although you can't see it in this picture, the details of this carving are astonishing. The pillars are smooth, there are wine glasses representing the days of the week, flowers representing the days of the month, and the details at the top of the columns are just amazing. The whole thing was truly breath-taking.
After walking for two hours and then having a quick lunch, our group decided to climb the 800 (Matt only counted 735) stairs that led to the Monastery. It took us a good hour to climb up - and what a tiring hour that was! However, once up on top, the Monastery was beautiful to behold and the views all around were awesome.
Of course, then we had to climb down the 800 (or 735) stairs back down and walk all the way back to the bus. There were options along the way to take a horse (for the first 800 meters), a horse-drawn carriage (which ran and looked extremely bumpy), a camel (which also ran), or a donkey (up the narrow stairs...and they ran too!). However, we walked to whole way and were nearly constantly almost run over by these running animals and contraptions. As I kept looking at either my feet to make sure I wasn't tripping over old rubble or gazing at the wonderful fascades, I often found myself nearly nose-to-nose with a running camel and then had to literally jump to the side. I think people were taking bets that I was going to get run over before we got back to the bus.
Anyway, we had an absoltely fabulous time and still can't quite fathom that we saw something so truly amazing. I highly recommend the adventure for everyone!
We took one of the city-to-city buses from Jerusalem to Eilat on Wednesday and thus sat through a 4 hour and 15 minute bus ride. For some reason, the first half of the trip nearly made everyone on the bus severely car sick, so we all had to pull out some plastic bags and have them at the ready "just in case." Luckily, the second half of the bus ride was much better and on the return trip we had no such problems.
We only really had the afternoon to spend in Eilat which was certainly not enough time to do everything. However, we did find time to walk along the rocky beaches and spend a bit of time snorkeling. I could go on for paragraphs and paragraphs about this, but I think this post will be too long already if I just focus on Petra. Let's just say that the water was the clearest I have ever seen and the fish were wonderfully colorful.
The next morning, we were picked up at 6:30 am from our hotel for our day-trip to Jordan to see Petra. Our friend, Eve, organized the trip and made reservations for a group of 13 of us to use Eco Tours. (It was a great trip and I recommend using them.)
Surprisingly, even though we were headed to an Arab country for the day, the scariest thing about the whole trip was our 10 minute ride to the Israel-Jordan border because the tour company picked us up in a safari jeep. Which means that we had to sit in the back of a jeep without seat belts and really feeling like one or many of us could fly out the open back or sides of the jeep. Eve had warned me about this part, but I had sincerely thought she must have been exaggerating. I quickly learned that she was not. As scary as it was, we all clung together and made it safely to (and later from) the border.
Since cars and buses are not allowed across the Israel-Jordan border, we were dropped off and then went through passport control on the Israeli side. Then we had to walk across a lonely, barren, no-man's land to get to the Jordan passport control. It was a strange feeling to be walking between two such countries.
Everything preceded smoothly and our Jordanian tour guide picked us up in a very large, comfortable, air-conditioned bus for our journey to Petra. It was about a two hour bus-ride from the border to Petra.
Immediately after getting off the bus, we all made a mad dash to the visitor's center's bathrooms (thank you, Eve, for reminding us to bring a roll of toilet paper!!). Then we were off to begin our 6 mile, 6 hour stay in Petra.
I have to admit that I knew very little about Petra before going there. I, of course, had seen the Treasury's fascade in Indiana Jones but I had not known that Petra itself used to be a city that contained about 25,000 people. The entrance to the city is a 900 meter (about half a mile) beautiful natural canyon, called the Siq. One of the amazing features of the Siq is that the people who lived here, built a water system that travelled all along both sides of the walls, carrying fresh water into the city.
The rock here is sandstone. Of varying degrees of hardness, sometimes the stone can by easily cut by a fingernail while other times is can only be cut using a chisel. One of the most amazing things about this sandstone are its natural colors. The varied minerals contained in the stone, each have their own vibrant color. In areas protected from wind and water, the colors are magnificent.
Petra was founded by the Nabateans, who lived in Petra beginning about 6th century BCE until the Romans took over the area in 106 CE. Most of the carvings are from the Nabateans, although there is still strong evidence of later Roman construction and development.
The Nabateans were a people who believed more strongly in the afterlife than they did in the present life (similar to the ancient Egyptians). Thus, they spent a lot of energy and time on their burial places. Within Petra, over 500 burial places have been found. Some of these are simple caves with very little adornment on the outside.
Some have the common "crowstep" design on the top which represents the body's climb to the afterlife.
A number of other crypts are extremely ornate. The "Treasury" (mis-named because some people thought there was treasure up in the urn at the top) is the best-preserved crypt. It was built as the final resting place for a king. It has three large rooms inside that were also carved into the rock. Although you can't see it in this picture, the details of this carving are astonishing. The pillars are smooth, there are wine glasses representing the days of the week, flowers representing the days of the month, and the details at the top of the columns are just amazing. The whole thing was truly breath-taking.
After walking for two hours and then having a quick lunch, our group decided to climb the 800 (Matt only counted 735) stairs that led to the Monastery. It took us a good hour to climb up - and what a tiring hour that was! However, once up on top, the Monastery was beautiful to behold and the views all around were awesome.
Of course, then we had to climb down the 800 (or 735) stairs back down and walk all the way back to the bus. There were options along the way to take a horse (for the first 800 meters), a horse-drawn carriage (which ran and looked extremely bumpy), a camel (which also ran), or a donkey (up the narrow stairs...and they ran too!). However, we walked to whole way and were nearly constantly almost run over by these running animals and contraptions. As I kept looking at either my feet to make sure I wasn't tripping over old rubble or gazing at the wonderful fascades, I often found myself nearly nose-to-nose with a running camel and then had to literally jump to the side. I think people were taking bets that I was going to get run over before we got back to the bus.
Anyway, we had an absoltely fabulous time and still can't quite fathom that we saw something so truly amazing. I highly recommend the adventure for everyone!
posted by Jen | 6:26 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home