South to Petra

We caught a mini-bus south to Wadi Musa on Wednesday. It took most of the day and upon being dropped off in the middle of the small town we looked to check ourselves into an inexpensive hotel. We found a gem: with a fountain out front, in-door pool, sauna, massages (didn’t feel the need), TV, and warm showers.

We woke up fairly early Thursday in order to hike around Petra, ancient city (1 mile away). If you are not familiar with Petra off the top of your head, one of its boasts is the Treasury (gets name from an Egyptian Pharaoh storing his treasure here) a large stone carved tomb beautifully captured in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

The Treasury

We entered the old city limits just after 8am and headed down a dusty trail lined with rank stables of mules, horses, and camels. Walking by this is the test, because if you can make it by without succumbing to the putrid smell or shelling out your meager stipend (hhhmmm, Br. Paul) for the luxury of hired transport the Siq that awaits you is amazing.



The Siq leaves me rapt with wonder. It is a soaring natural rock hallway, that which turns and winds creating slants and angles that leave you curious and excited to explore what lies next. At times the path is wide enough to accommodate a highway yet the high sides create a cover wide enough that only a person could slip through.

Siq

Along both walls there is a sophisticated canal system (for the time it was built), which flows (down) and hugs the curves. The walls are beautiful in their own right, showing the layers of sedimentation through rich colors and design.

Siq walls

Not knowing the extent of the Siq or the length we had traveled, the end caught me by surprise. We rounded the last turn and through the narrow fracture I could just make out elements of a construction. The corridor ended and opened into a large locale busy with people bartering for rides, taking photographs, sitting and eating/drinking, and walking onward.

Looking back at the end of the Siq

The Treasury was immense in front of me and I was still a good 100 yards away. We walked up to it and with each step the pillars on the front face seemed to grow higher and higher, until they connected with thick stone caps and ledges that led to higher sills which turned into the sharp angles of the roof.

We're hiking

From the Treasury it is about another hour and a half straight hike to the top of another mountain where there is yet another gorgeous stone structure, called the Monastery. It was early in the day and we had planned to spend the whole day in Petra so we sidetracked on one of the many alternate hiking loops.




We began to climb these steep stairs that I’m surprised did not wash off the mountain because of the incline. We hiked to one of the highest points in Petra, used as a sacrificial altar originally. From here we took a breather and looked out onto Jordan; dark brown ribbed cliffs sticking up from a tan floor.



Our hike consisted of many views like this and 4 hours later we reached our goal, the Monastery.

Monastery

We unpacked and ate lunch looking out over Jordan. I wondered if all the people who were selling items along the trail or lived in the area ever got sick of the views, if they were exposed to them so much that the grandeur of it all was lost.



It’s hard to describe the paradoxical feeling atop these mountains. You are like a king sitting on top if this enormous throne looking out at your vast dominion. But you can see other peaks off in the distance at the boundary of your sight and if you were to go to these peaks and look further you would see more peaks again at the boundary of your sight and you realize how small you are and how you cannot possibly match the natural physical magnificence of these landforms.

Ate lunch looking out over this view (it's better without me)

Our feet were dragging by the end of the day and the pool was an oasis in the desert.

Hiking up to the Monastery