After over a week in Jordan, we were finally ready to go see its main attraction and one of the 7 wonders of the world: Petra! To get there, we began by driving several hours south along the Desert Highway, which is a fairly descriptive name for this stretch of road. The desert is expansive in Jordan, and it makes for some pretty incredible views.
The Desert Highway, Jordan.
Our first stop was a “suburb” of Petra several kilometers before the real thing, known as Little Petra. This is an ancient town that contains many rock-carved temples and buildings just like Petra, only much smaller. We had read that it’s a great introduction to Petra, and that it’s imperative to visit Little Petra first so as not to de-sensitize ourselves to the incredible sights. The other great thing about Little Petra is that it’s owned and run by the local Bedouins, so there is no entrance fee, almost no infrastructure, and no crowds! [Editor’s note: To be clear, the Bedouins live in the caves and tents in/around Little Petra, much as they do at Petra. The difference, however, is that Little Petra isn’t enough of a spectacle for Jordan to be able to monetize it, so they seem fine to let the Bedouins run it for themselves (whereas Petra is too much of a cash cow for them to ever do the same there.] We basically had the run of the place and were able to scramble up onto as many rocky staircases and cliffs as we could find, marveling at the building facades cut into the rock, for as long as we wanted before a single tour bus drove up. [Editor’s note: The cool thing was seeing all the different paths that snaked their way up into, and beyond, the caves that lined that valley. We allowed our minds to explore the possible entrances and routes of the trails, but not our legs – we had to save our strength.] We didn’t bother doing too much hiking as we figured Petra itself would provide enough of a leg workout (spoiler alert: that’s an understatement). It was really cool to see, and I think it served us well as an introduction to the sights we’d be seeing later that evening. I’m glad we stopped by, if only to get a slightly “Petra off the beaten track” angle on things.
A carved building and some wildflowers at Little Petra
Rorie surveys the scene from a cave house
There were so few people, we could even practice our jumping photos.
Not bad, right?
We then made our way to our hotel in Wadi Musa, the town right next to Petra. The first night we went to Petra by Night, a special event run three times a week where they light thousands of candles and you can walk into Petra and see the Treasury (the most spectacular/popular part of Petra) all lit up at night. We figured it would be a great way to first experience the Siq (the main walkway through a narrow rock canyon to get to the site), as well as our first look at the Treasury itself. Further, since we arrived in the evening, the schedule worked out well! While there were a lot of people there (Petra, as expected, is where our run of “no other tourists in Jordan” ended), it was a very cool ambiance with the thousands of candles lining the pathway, and we walked through the narrow, tall canyon by candlelight for what seemed like forever until emerging at the Treasury, with lines and lines of candles in front of it. [Editor’s note: Many tourists are intimidated by Jordan (and shouldn’t be), but desperately want to see Petra. To accommodate this, the savvy Jordanian government created a 72 hour visa for people to visit from Israel or other locations just so folks could dart in, see Petra and then get out. I think that sells this beautiful, kind and interesting country short, but to each their own.] We sat on mats and listened to some Bedouins play traditional music under the stars for a while. It was pretty magical, and an awesome way to see Petra for the first time. Towards the end, they lit up the monastery with a bunch of brightly colored lights (somewhat detracting from the magic, in my opinion) and people stood up to take pictures before the long walk back through the candlelit canyon. Overall, I’m glad we did it, but I’m really glad we did it first. After a full day of walking around in the daylight, I don’t think I’d have appreciated the candles quite as much. [Editor’s note: I agree with all of this. To be honest, it was a pretty touristy activity that would be easy to dislike, if one were so inclined. With that said, how many times do you get to see one of the 7 wonders of the world lit up at night by candles? If you keep reminding yourself of that, then it’s pretty damn magical.]
The Treasury lit up with hundreds of candles – gorgeous!
Rorie sits on the mat as we listen to the music
The Treasury all lit up
The walkway from the visitor’s center lined with candles
The next day, we woke up bright and early to try to beat the crowds. We’d read that there was a long, tough hike up to the biggest carved building in Petra called the Monastery (even bigger than the Treasury, though not as intricately carved) all the way at the far end of the site, so we booked it straight there without stopping first thing in the morning. Between the extensive walk from the visitor’s center to the Treasury (itself already a 30-40 minute walk), there was another 20-30 minutes to get to the far side of Petra before even beginning our hour-or so hike up to it. [Editor’s note: There are 822 stairs you have to climb to reach the Monastery, which is well worth it. As you talk to Bedouins, however, that number grows to 900, 1000, 1100(!) as they try to sell you donkey rides up the steps. Clever guys!] That’s all after the 15 minute walk from our hotel, of course! Although we’d started early, it was already blazingly hot and we were sweating and tired before we even got to the stairs up to the Monastery, but once we made it up we were rewarded by an almost-empty site and expansive views all around. Even the Bedouins selling souvenirs along the path weren’t open yet. Doing this long hike all at once really showed me how vast the city of Petra was in its heyday. The amazing part about it is how well-preserved some of the facades in the rock really are, despite the entire city being mostly destroyed in an earthquake in the 5th century. The Nabatean city was “lost” (at least to the Western world) for hundreds of years since the Crusaders visited it last, and was only rediscovered in 1812 by a Swiss traveler who brought awareness of it back to the world. [Editor’s note: The Swiss traveler was actually a bit of a jerk who effectively tricked the local Bedouins into telling him where it was, then turned around and told the whole world against their wishes. We benefit from this, but still – not cool.] It’s truly stunning when staring up at the huge carvings in the red rock.
Rorie in the Siq, the natural narrow canyon that leads to Petra
A donkey greets us on our hike up to the Monastery
Even the vendors on the way up accept credit cards
Now that’s a Monastery!
The Monastery itself is a huge carved façade in the rock that was originally used for many things, including meeting and dining space, and later had crosses carved into it by the Ottomans, giving it its name today. We spent quite a while up at the Monastery, including hiking up even further to a hilltop viewpoint where a young Bedouin had a nice shady tent and made us tea while we rested. [Editor’s note: He was a super chill guy who just let us hang out in his tent where he lives at the top of hill overlooking the Monastery on one side and the desert on the other. A very simple existence, but undoubtedly a good one.] The views were pretty amazing from up there, too. After our long rest, we headed back down to the main part of Petra to eat our lunches (that our hotel owner had kindly packed up for us, since food inside Petra is notoriously overpriced) before exploring a few more of the ruins.
Rorie on a rock partway up to our viewpoint
Hanging out at our viewpoint next to our shady tent
Another shot with the Monastery because it deserves it.
By this point, we were pretty wiped out from the heat and hiking, so we made our way slowly back past the Treasury and through the Siq, where I decided that my poor feet deserved a break and hopped on one of the horses that wait there to ferry tourists back and forth the last kilometer or so to the visitor’s center. Technically, the entry ticket includes this horse ride, though of course the tip to the horse’s owner is also required. It was well worth it given how sore my feet were! Rorie didn’t take a horse and walked back, out of a combination of pride, not wanting to pay a tip, and annoyance with the insistent Bedouins who kept harassing him to get on their horses. [Editor’s note: This was a good opportunity for me to flex my stubbornness muscle, since it doesn’t get as much work as it used to. Pride wasn’t much of an issue, but the cost and harassment were. Petra has a way of bleeding money from you and Bedouins can be pretty pushy salesman, so by the end of the day I was totally over it. No regrets.]
Tired but always happy to be on horseback!
The following morning our muscles were not happy with us from the previous day’s hiking, but we forced ourselves to head back to Petra. While we’d seen the Treasury before (by candlelight the first night, as well as the previous morning on our way past to the Monastery), we hadn’t really gotten a good clear view of it yet. We had read that one of the other long, difficult hikes led to an upper viewpoint that sounded really cool, but was also daunting given the distance and heat. However, the first morning a bunch of Bedouins had approached us and offered to take us up an “unmarked trail” to a better viewpoint of the Treasury that would only take us 10 or 20 minutes. While we were pretty sure that “unmarked” meant “relatively unsafe” and “we are definitely not supposed to go there,” the prospect of cutting out 3 or 4 hours of hiking won out and we agreed. We headed off with our Bedouin guide and another couple from Turkey and immediately passed by a “do not pass this point” sign and started scrambling up the rocks. [Editor’s note: It was actually a super fun hike that was well worth the cost, since it was awesome to be scrambling over the rocks (and away from the tourists). Plus, our young Bedouin guy was a super nice guy and took to calling me Captain America, so that was also a big win.] Our guide leapt up the boulders in his leather sandals while the rest of us tried to keep up without falling or crushing our cameras on the rocks. We climbed up and up, and sure enough ended at a tent set up perfectly above the Treasury, with a vertigo-inducing view straight down (and of course no attempt at safety barriers whatsoever).
Looking down at the Treasury from up top
Enjoying our birds-eye view
I was definitely sure Rorie was going to die taking this picture.
It was an awesome view, and I felt vindicated in the decision to come back to Petra for a second day, and not to do the longer hike. This way, we were back down from our main goal of the day by 10am or so, and we were able to walk around and see a few more of the carvings and ruins that we had skipped the previous day out of exhaustion.
The amazing carved mountains of Petra
Such a cool scene!
Back on ground level in front of the Treasury
The classic “emerging from the Siq to the Treasury” shot, complete with camel! Just as amazing in real life, I can assure you.
The path through the Siq. When you can’t decide if the natural rock or the carved rock is more amazing, you know you’re in a special place!
The heat and walking eventually got to us again, and we made our way back to our hotel for a late lunch – all in all, a very successful second morning in Petra! Our afternoon allowed us to experience Jordanian life a bit, as Ramadan had by now ended (Happy Eid!) which means that we were allowed to go to cafes. [Editor’s note: It was really cool to be in the Middle East during Ramadan, since it’s such a big part of the culture and shapes everything. With that said, it’s SO nice to be able to eat and drink freely during the day! Big win!] We tried to go to one near our hotel, but as we were peering in a young man working at the hotel across the street came out to tell us it was closed. I asked him if there was somewhere else nearby and he proceeded to lead us into a building, up four flights of stairs, and into a room with a bunch of locals smoking shisha, playing cards, and watching the World Cup on a television. It was an awesome spot (and they had WiFi), so we spent a few hours hanging out and appreciating the slower side of Wadi Musa.
All in all, Petra delivered as one of the 7 Wonders of the World. It was very different from the rest of our Jordan experience, given how incredibly touristy and crowded it was, but as a standalone site it was beautiful and awe-inspiring. From the heat of Petra we’ll head to the heat of the desert as we escape the crowds and drive to Wadi Rum, the huge and alien-looking red desert to the south where we’ll spend a few nights out in the sand dunes!
A group of camels say hello in front of the Treasury
