We just spent a four day weekend in Jordan. Jordan was shockingly quiet, organized, clean and easy. But maybe that has something to do with the fact that the whole country has about 1/4 of the population of Cairo. We flew into Amman in the evening and left the next morning for Petra so that we could have as much time in the park as possible. Then we had a day and a half back in Amman on the tail end.
This is the main canyon, called "the Sik" that takes visitors to the ruins. Right at the end of this winding walkway is the Treasury.
Here is the Treasury late in the evening when most visitors have already gone home. Petra was the capital of the Nabatean people, who traded between the Persian Gulf, Egypt and the Mediterranean. Their peak was about the time of Jesus. They were polytheistic, and various gods, shared around the region, were depicted here. Petra was a major marketplace, and it was easy to imagine the one big street filled with stands selling frankincense and spices and jewelry. Petra stayed important after it was taken over by Rome, but after a major earthquake around 500AD, it never returned to prominence.
Petra is really a huge site. They have made it a protected park, and you can spend the day walking through various trails and pathways to see ruins high and low. The hillsides are filled with caves and chiseled facades.
Even if it was just a place to hike, it would be incredible. All the massive facades, made it that much better. It was the kind of place that made a person feel really small.
This is the Treasury, the most famous image that comes from Petra.
There were all kinds of beautiful trails to explore. It felt a lot like Utah.
Yet another giant building carved into the marbled rock hillside.
This is a narrow, winding, canyon called Wadi Muthlim. It serves as the conduit for the water that the Nabateans were trying to keep out of the main Petra area and is prone to flash floods. As we made our way through the sculpted rock, we would find huge objects (like a horse carriage) that were rushed in with the water and then stuck forming part of the scenery.
Caves in the hillside, possibly tombs.
A view from above. That is a Roman theater.
Gratuitous camel shot. They're just so photogenic.
It was surprisingly cold, hence the styly jacket and hat Zach picked up in a flea market on our way to the bus station in Amman. Go SF Giants.
We were walking out of our hotel in Amman, feeling chilly and underdressed for the weekend. We wondered where we would find jackets and an ATM and a taxi, and found them all together two blocks later at a flea market.
This is where lightly loved stuffed animals go to get reincarnated.
And shoes.
Humus in the background, a treat since it's not as common in Egypt. This is the special falafel of Hashem restaurant: stuffed with red onion and covered on one side with sesame seeds. Deelicious.
We're sitting in the smaller Roman theater of Amman, next door to the bigger one.. These theaters are apparently still used fairly regularly today.
Two classes of elementary school girls were visiting the Roman theater while we were there and it was fun to watch them climb eagerly all over the two thousand year old steps.
Produce market, not all that different from Cairo, but always an exciting barrage of colors and smells.
I (Zach) couldn't resist the cliche picture of the guy in full Gulf outfit sitting at a new Starbucks. I still can't get over Egyptians and Jordanians referring to men wearing long white shirts as "Arabs" even if those Egyptians and Jordanians know no other language than Arabic.
Looking down on the Roman theater from Roman ruins up one of Amman's many hills. In the foreground is what I believe to be a young Ailanthus, the tree that grows in Brooklyn, among other places.
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