No visit to Jordan would be complete without visiting the amazing ancient city of Petra, which I did as my first stop off the ship there in August. Built by the Nebataean Arabs around 300BC, it is just breathtaking in its scale. One starts the adventure trekking down into a canyon, which gets tighter and tighter, darker and darker. Up ahead, light becomes visible...
And then just a few steps on the canyon widens out to reveal...
The amazing Treasury building, which I'm sure you will recall starred in the final sequences of
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
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| I didn't find any Crusader Knights or Holy Grails though! |
Pictures just cant do this place justice - I'm rather amazing to see all the hand carved buildings right out of the rock face
After wandering around the intrepid visit can chill out or take the rugged climb up to the top of the mountain though. Not being wimp out types, we climbed in the scorching heat to see the Monastery at the top of the mountain - easily as impressive as the Treasury building.
To give you a sense of scale, below is a pic is me at the door of the Monastery, which is the above pic is in line with my left elbow
Just a little further to the top, spectacular views beckon...
...and don't disappoint!
And at the end of the day its also comforting to see that Cheezyness is universal!
http://visitpetra.jo/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petra
Pretty Cool.
ReplyDeleteWow - that must be a fascinating place
ReplyDeleteWow!
ReplyDeleteI'm more than a little envious. You are a very lucky chap. Great pictures btw.
ReplyDeleteAwesome pictures, thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteDid you find the holy grail? I think Indiana forgot it there.
ReplyDeleteIn the movie it doesn't look have as impressive.
My word that really is rather special, certainly on the wish list of places to see.
ReplyDeleteI should visit Petra when the chance will come up; for me this means a long (in Israeli terms - 5 hours from Tel-Aviv) bus ride to Eilat and then crossing the border to Akkaba and signing up for a guided tour to Petra.
ReplyDeleteVery impressive place, beautiful in fact...maybe the grail is for sale in that shop?
ReplyDeleteAaah commercialism how I love thee. Petra is one of those places that I would love to see in person... one day!
ReplyDeleteVery cool, thanks for sharing. There's not many place in the world that I am particularly interested in seeing, but this would be one of them!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great place to visit, pure envy! Near ephesus turkey is another cheesy shop, the sign out the front reads" genuine fake watches" just love it.
ReplyDeleteAwesome.
ReplyDeleteThat's all I can say about that.
cheers
Petra, Israel is one of the best destination to visit and you describe it very well with your blog. It is very impressive post. Thanks for sharing this info with us.
ReplyDelete