Petra Through Rose-Colored Glasses

Matt asked me how I would describe Petra, while discussing the blog post yesterday on our bus in Southern India - heading from Kerala to Tamil Nadu. After only a couple seconds, three words rose to my minds eye, like scrolling letters of fog from 'Alice's Wonderland Caterpillar': vast, colorful and ornate. There is so much more to Petra than just these three words, but for me, they are what made it such a unique experience - and one of our favorite places we've visited thus far on our trip.

After reading a few blurbs on Petra from our friend's, Ivan The Great, 'Rough Guide,' I discovered how massive the park actually was (264,000 square meters) and had to grab a guide book myself before venturing out to the hidden city. Like the sandstone walls that make up every inch of this place, the layers upon layers of history and changing of hands make Petra so curious, but it was the Nabataeans that made it a true wonder of the World - and for us.

We went early in the morning to "beat the crowds" and found ourselves amongst the slow trickle of people with the same train of thought, walking peacefully through a long hall of echoes, before we finally stumbled out in an agora of light from the labyrinth that is 'The Siq.'

  
The Siq / The Treasury at the end

The first thing that hit me (and many others for that matter) was the precise craftsmanship of 'The Treasury,' which greets you head-on, first with it's pinkish hue peeking from beyond the escarpments of 'The Siq,' and then as you get closer, with it's unimaginably crisp lines of the intricately topped pillars and rooftops. It's as if it was done with a laser from 2012, not with chisels of craftsmen from 2100 years ago. I still can't believe the superb condition in which it finds itself - the jewel of Petra.

The Treasury

As you begin to enter the many other tombs of countless Nabataean rulers speckled across the landscape, you find yourself surrounded by frozen rivers of red, orange, pink, black and grey. These sandpaper murals hug the angles of the carved inner walls and leak out the gigantic doorways that contain them. I've never seen such colors stained in the Earth.

For us, Petra was one of those places that truly lived up to it's hype - even though "World Tourism Day" did not - (see below).

LOGISTICAL STUFF:
ONE DAY VS TWO DAYS:
Because Petra is so large, it would be physically taxing to try and do the whole thing in one day. Matt and I started at 7:30am and (taking our time) only got through 1/3 of the sites and treks by 6:00pm - 10.5 hours! We do tend to be doddlers, so that can somewhat explain away the long day, but if you have a day to spare, we would highly recommend taking it. If not for you, for your poor feet.

On the day we went, it was "World Tourism Day," where you are granted free admission into any national park within Jordan, according to VisitJordan.com. At least so we thought. Come to find out that it was only the "Jordanian" tourists that received free entry. No biggie though - a 2-day pass only costs slightly more than a 1-day pass.

GUIDE BOOKS: LONELY PLANET VS ROUGH GUIDE:
I personally feel that it's important to have some kind of guide, whether it's a book or a person, to fully enjoy this place. Both will help you map out how to make the most of your time there, and without them you'll just be looking at a lot of pretty structures without much context. Plus, you can find out unmarked trails that you normally wouldn't have known on your own. Just my two cents. 

In regards to books, I have to say, I read the sections for Petra in both the Lonely Planet and Rough Guide, and although the Lonely Planet gives you an oober cool 3D map (and I'm a huge advocate for LP), it doesn't really give you diddly on the history of Petra itself and all the sites within the park. Rough Guide did a much better job in thoroughly spelling it out.

TRANSPORT: AMMAN TO WADI MUSA:
There is a posh air-conditioned bus available around 8am from Amman to Wadi Musa (Petra), which leaves to Amman around 3 or 4pm. Also, there are several public buses (non-A/C) that will take you there throughout the day. However, you'll find that sharing a taxi with some fellow travelers will fare around the same price, be much quicker, and will drop you off at your hotel. (We took a shared taxi.)

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