Petra

Whew, we just got back from Petra!!! AMAZING!! So a little history about Petra first, it is an ancient and mean ANCIENT city built by the Nabateans, later used by the Romans. The City is built straight out of sandstones, it's all red rock ( a lot like Moab actually) and carved out insaaaaaaaane buildings, pillars, sculptures etc. The buildings are vast, and virtually perfect. The path to the city is through a Siq, that they paved almost a thousand years ago. They had a very complex water system, really amazing. The Siq is a narrow hallway with rock wall so high above you, and its littered with ancient carvings. The air is cool even though its so hot outside, the sun barely hits the floor of the siq during the day.

Then as you walk along, there are tons of little carts pulled by small horses carrying tourists who don't want to walk to the entrance of the city. The carts are loud and dangerous. Also some obviously local Jordanians were walking at about the same time and pace as us, and they had about 7 little kids under the age of 9. They were SO cute, they were very poor, wearing well worn out coats and hats, with only flip flops for shoes, but they were beautiful! They were SO cute, and got a kick out of us saying "Hello". They would say hello, then giggle and say Hi, and giggle and say how are you? or where from? They teach English in the schools here...anyway one little girl was playing peek-a-boo with me all the way to the entrance. Speaking of the entrance, it is just Breathtaking!

Also, I fulfilled one of my life goals, I rode a camel!!! They are so tall and super stinky, but it was fun. It's a little scary when they stand up and lay back down, but they really are cool. I love their faces, they can be so expressive, especially their eyelashes, I love it! It was fun. I would do it again, but probably not for very long, it's not the most comfortable thing ever :) We made our way through the ancient city, there were merchants on every side, as well as small boys trying to hire out their donkeys. They would shout "Donkey Taxi ride, good price, happy hour, give you special deal!" (They ALL say happy hour, all the time...it's pretty funny. Also one of them was yelling "Air conditioned Donkey Taxi ride!" It was funny. There was also an old man with a blanket full of trinkets, saying to everyone that passed by "Chinese coins, straight from China, only half dinar (that's like 50 cents) Only one week old straight from China!" It was so funny, it was modern Chinese currency, but he seemed to think it would be a novelty item...yes sir that's exactly what I want as a souvenir from Petra, something made in China! Brother! Okay the rest I'll tell with pictures. Enjoy!

Me in front of the Tomb of Obelisks and the Tomb of Triclinium, this marked the beginning of the city, before the siq.

This was in the Siq, carvings like this one were all over
In the Siq
These children running through the water trough in the Siq, it was dry of course, they were singing and laughing all the way, it was so cute to watch and interact with them
A glimpse of Al-Khaseh through the Siq

Mounting the Camel...
And off we go!
Me in front of AL-Khaseh, the most well known structure in Petra
A Nabataen guard...he let me hold his staff/spear

A close up of the carvings in the pillars
Al-Khaseh
Awe, Camels
In front of the 17 Tombs at the end of the street of facades

The street of Facades

The Urn Tomb, and royal tombs...the picture doesn't do it justice, it is really magnificentHilarious right? And why not?

Behind me is the theater, it looks more like a bowl shaped rock, but look closely they are steps/theater seats! Donkeys and the Treasury

Posing on a very Zeus-like statue, though it's not Zeus, it's a Nabataean God.
This is the South Temple, or what's left of it. I think they are working on restoring it.

Well so that's Petra, it was amazing, and really the pictures are cool but they never do them Justice, it was really awe-inspiring. There are tons more pictures, but I just had to put a few.