After cruising south down the Gulf of Suez, we turned around the point of Sinai then north up the Gulf of Aqaba, arriving early on Sunday morning. The day was devoted to visiting Petra, a civilization as old as the Pyramids although the buildings are not as old.
After a long bus ride and a hot dusty walk down a very narrow and deep ravine, dodging galloping
horses, we were rewarded with the classical sight of the buildings carved into the cliff walls. The narrow defile suddenly opened put into a sunny area of about two acres, on the opposite side of which was the magnificent Treasury. Walking down the wider valley we saw many buildings and sepulchers cut into the cliff walls with, finally, a large Roman amphitheatre.
There were thousands of people there, probably half of whom were from our ship.
Compared with dingy Egypt, Jordan looked relatively clean and prosperous, the people well dressed and not quite so commercially aggressive.
3 comments:
Looks stunning - I can feel the heat in the photos and your description - dusty heat. Pity about having to share that with so many people - but I guess that has been happening in these places for centuries. Had people built homes into the cliff walls - that is so creative and cool.
Oh I'd love to see this!
If you haven't read it, this book is excellent. Great blog and even more fantastic trip!!!
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