Long walk through Petra - constant photo opportunities - Edom - and to Amman - swim - sauna - steam - swim - sauna - hot tub - swim - fountain coke

We started the day walking down from our hotel, through the city and into the Siq which leads to Petra (meaning rock, made famous by the Indiana Jones movie).

The canyon grows deeper and deeper: my companions lend some scaling for you.

Petra was the religious center for the Nabateans who we ran into before (see ramblings near the Dead Sea). They were the infamous desert traders: the only culture who knew how to cross the desert without shriveling up from a lack of water. This canyon was their religious progression annd these (below) were small alters for their ceremonies.

The money shot of Kazneh (the Treasury). And another with some camels. Donkey and camel rides are quite popular through Petra as the walk is tiresome and both animals are funny looking.

You can just barely see a girl in a yellow shirt - this one is big too.

Some have suffered much more from wind erosion. All these monuments date from about the 4th century bc to 1st century ad.

There was an optional hike (but who would pass it up) to a high alter. This is the view from up there, about 5ooft above Petra.

A Wheaton student in front of me, being hounded by a little old woman selling trinkets on our way down the back side of the hike - they are everywhere.

A heck of a necropolis. There is a family sitting in the bottom right corner eating lunch and a man standing in the right corrodor for scale. You can click on the picture to enlarge it. This one is almost 100ft high, and quite wide.

This is the view from inside one of the tombs. No matter what you saw in Indiana Jones, these rock facades have only small tombs inside them going back 15-30ft.
and how do one's feet look after a few hours in Petra?

From here we went to the Edomite capital city. Again, if this place was in the states we might treat it differently - this is the signage/security Jordan provided.
Here is an Islamic shepherd, feeding his animals on a 4000 yr old ruin while praying.
This city was much bigger than Jerusalem of the day, but this one fell.
And some companions of mine, standing on old rocks. Yea!
We stayed the night in Amman which is Jordan's largest city, about 2.5 million. When the international banking commnity left Beruit due to war, much moved here to Amman which is why it looks so western. I have no pictures, but i did go swimming in the Best Western's pool. Who would have thought there would be a Best Western in Jordan-or a metal detector you would have to pass through to get in? i know now.

And who new fountain coke would taste so good after three weeks of its absence?