Petra

What to say about the place? If anyone has seen Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade they know at least one location in Petra, the Treasury.

The treasury is not actually a Treasury, just the front a of a tomb, which is what most of that sort of in the rock face building in Petra is. Inside there are no secret chambers and none of them go that far into the rock. Just a square room and not much excitement. Alas. This particular locale is called the Treasury because the Bedouin believe some advancing Pharaoh was being slowed down by his treasure so using his magical dark powers he created the pklace in one night. Subsequerntly thew BNedouin took to shootiong at one of the solid stone urns on the facade. Treasure is yet to fall out (and I think teh Bedouin have given up).

Walking to the treasury is down a long suq, a wind worn canyon of red rock. Very cool and paved by the Romans at some point. ALong its sides they have carved some channels, part of the extensive Nabatean water works. Truly amazing what thye were able to do with so little rain. Then suddenly there's a crack ahead and you get your first glimpse of teh treasury.

Thjere are all sorts of buildings carved into the rock, here and there, as well as a street that was formerly collonaded and had free standing temples, some of which still remain. Very cool stuff.

While there I climbed to the monastery, originally built as a meeting place by the Nabateans, teh Byzantines used it as a church, hence the name ( I can't remember the Arabic). This place is like teh Treasury, only bigger and on top of a mountain. Crazy location. They had to dig away the slope of the mountain a good 20m before they had the height they wanted to build the thing into the rock face (about 43m tall). Then they had to carve it and blah blah blah. The only question that was running through my mind is "who does that?" Certainly not me. Too much effort. Although I am digging holes in the desert so who am I to judge.

Up at the top of a mountain I was also able to hit up a look out and away to the north was Haron's (Aaron, Moses' brother) tomb. I alittle white speck atop a crag. Apparently to get there is quite the hike.

After my climb (on an empty stomach) I wasn't feeling the best. I probably should have rented a donkey...next time.

I felt crummy the rest of the day and after working on Saturday managed to come down with some diarreha for Sunday and took teh day off. But I needn't detail that.

General thoughts on Petra. A place to be visited again and with more time. This visit was a bit rushed and I need more time to meditate on the site. We did get in for free though because we are archaelogists and our representative from the department of antiquities is awesome and seems to own Jordan (it's all about who you know). Amer is his name and we call him the Hammer.

Also, in Petra, the stairs to nowhere, and from nowhere, are tremendous. I assume they uised to have ends, but erosion's a funny thing and now they just float on various cliff faces.