Petra

Petra

The long awaited day in Petra beganwith a 5:30 am wake up call. Because we were heading to Wadi Rum in the afternoon, we had to pack differently today. We could not take a suitcase, rather all we needed for tonight had to fit in a backpack. Additionally we had to have what we needed for the walk in Petra itself.

So, after a quick shower and a complete repacking of all my stuff I was ready to go. I opened the room's curtains only to discover that it was raining. Raining is not quite the right word. Water was simply falling from the sky so thick that the street in front of the hotel was not visible. And when we did get down to the street it was no longer a street but a river about six to eight inches deep.

However we had our instructions so we all got our bags down to the lobby and on to the bus so that we could get to a 6:00am breakfast. As we started into breakfast, we were told that Petra was not likely to open. In a country where everything is rock, there is little to no absorption of rainwater. So sudden flooding is a reality. Not sure what was to happen, and one time I was so glad that I was not in charge, we decided that the best option was to just enjoy breakfast!

After what turned out to be a liesurly breakfast, we sat in the hotel lobby and visited. By then the rain had stopped, and suddenly, about 8:00am our guide, Rahmie, said, "They have opened the gates, we must go NOW!" So we go jogging down to the Petra gate and they let us in. (They closed it again 20 minutes later and the gates stayed closed the rest of the morning and into the afternoon.)

Off we went on the 10 minute walk to the Petra gate and in to Petra.

 

There are three stages to getting into Petra. The first is about 800 meters walk. This moves you from the valley floor to what looks like a crack in the cliff face. From a distance it does not look large enough to even walk into.

 

At that point you get to the actual opening to Petra. 

Petra is abasically a gorge something like what you go through to get to Radium, except that it is 4 Km long. You start with a 800 Meter walk to the opening in the countail, basically a 10 foot wide crack. Then you walk about another 1.2 KM through this winding crack to get into the city proper. All along this 1.2 KM walk you see carvings on the rock, mainly toombs and places where statues must have stood. To get water into Petra, they cut a waterway into the rock that was a water channel so that they could bring spring water into the city. (Trivia fact - The Romans tried to capture Petra but could not get enough men in through the small access area to put up a proper fight, so they poisened the water and were able to walk in unchallanged.)

The ground was wet from the rain and there was some running water bubbling along beside us but it was not too bad.

Then, when we were nearly to the end of the 1.2 KM walk, it started to rain. Again this was not a soft rain but simply buckets of water falling from the sky. Soon the rivulet of water running beside us was covering the floor and soon we were walking in a river. When it thundered it echowed down the canyon like you could not believe, sort of what I imagine it might be like inside a bass drum!

Suddenly a security police was coming along telling us that we have to get back out of the gorge and hurry. Not long after a toyota 4 wheel drive came down the gorge toward us and they told us that they were going to get the workers who had gone in ahead to get them out.

So we hussled all the way back. By now were were all completely soaked. There was no way to find a place to walk where the water was not over our shoes, so shoes and feet were wet and all the rest of us was wet as well.

When we got to the entrance of the gorge, our guide told us, let's not leave yet, even though the security people were telling us that we should go the extra 800 meters to the gate.

So we stood around for nearly an hour while he took off. Soon the rain slacked off a bit, and suddenly four of the security toyota four wheel drive trucks show up. Our guide jumps out of one and yells for us all to get in and quick, and he tells us, be sure to tip the driver when you get off. So we all pile on the rucks and off we go down the gorge, driving through the river and down to Petra. We got to the opening of the major part of the city, called the temple and the trucks could not go any further because the water was getting too high, so they let us out and we were able to see the most spectatular of the carvings and take lots of pictures.