Petra

Justin in front of the Treasury
Riding a camel with Amelia
The Treasury
The Street of Facades
The Urn, Silk, Corinthian, & Palace TombsThe South Temple

After church on Friday we changed into regular clothes, ate lunch, and packed up the car for an overnight trip to Petra. Mom, Jeremy, Jared sat in the very back; Amelia sandwiched between Courtenay and I; with Justin and Dad in front. We made a very lethargic group on the drive up, most trying to nap. We arrived in Petra without a place to sleep. Mom and I tried to make some arrangements but most hotels were already booked. Selah recommended two hotels but the slip of paper he used was tossed during the car pack up. Courtenay, Justin, and I took turns running into about 7 different hotels looking for a decent room for a reasonable price. The first hotel was ghastly. The next 6 were booked, the last was outrageously priced but not booked. So we took the room for 80 JD ($120 USD) per room...a total rip off. We had three twin beds in each room, with one extra bed for Jeremy. The rooms reminded me of a certain hotel Sister Stepp and I slept in about 10 years ago in Cape Verde. At least the sheets were clean and bug free. Dad was not too happy about stepping from the relative controlled chaos of his office to Lance family chaos. He had a forehead furrow about an inch deep and connecting eyebrows from scowling.

Everyone met at the car to walk down to the main street for dinner at the Red Rock Cave. We each ordered part of a mezza (dips and salads) and a meat. It was decent food. Then we walked down to the main entrance to find out when the gate opened and to peruse the shops. Most of the wares reminded me of the jewelry found in Egypt...gaudy, colorful stones set in silver! Love it. By this time it was 7:15 and we ran out of stuff to do. We all turned in with the plan of meeting downstairs by 6:30 am. I slept decently for the first time since Justin got here. My four inches of mattress space at Mom's is not very conducive to sleep.

Breakfast was a hurried affair, stuffing down sweet bread, eggs, and cereal. While waiting for Dad and Mom the rest of us stretched our legs in preparation for the hike. We paid the ticket price and began our adventure. First we hiked passed the horses and carriages ferrying people to the main attraction: the treasury. Amelia loved the horses. The first monument we hiked to were the Djinn blocks and tomb of the Triclinium. From there we entered the Siq (translated, the shaft) with the walls towering 300-600 feet above us. Every few feet is a votive niche containing a statue or carving. Each side of the wall has a water conduit cut directly into the rock, the rock is sloped in the shape of a "c" so that the water in the conduit is protected from dirt and reduces evaporation. The other side contained water pipes made out of terracotta. Amazing!! A Jordanian family walked nearby, he had three wives and 7 children under the age of 8. One little girl was super cute, asking, "what you name?" I tried to get a good picture because the ladies were dressed in complete Abaya.

We walked a little more than a mile down the Siq before the Siq opened up to reveal the amazing sight of the Treasury peeking through the walls. The sight took my breath away and filled about half my camera's memory card!! Courtenay, Jared, Justin, Amelia, and I all took a camel ride for 3 JD ($5 outrageous price for 3 minutes). Riding a camel is one of Justin's life dreams...now he needs to find a new dream. The camel was stinky but who can resist a picture of the Treasury on a camel. Amelia was not too sure about the camel. Inside the Treasury the carved walls were decorated by the rock's striations. As we walked out of the complex the canyon opened into a valley. From here numerous caves and tombs dot the canyon. My favorite was the Street of Facades. Further down is an amphitheater, temples, more tombs, and a Roman colonnaded street. The best word to describe Petra is: AMAZING.

We had a snack at the end of the main canyon then hiked back. Amelia fell asleep in the backpack totally scrunched up. Dad treated us to lunch before we started the trip home. I had fun reading more about the Nabataeans. It was easy to imagine 30,000 people living there. Most likely, the canyon area was for business and worship, most people lived above the metropolisis.