Visiting Petra The capital of the Nabatean kingdom and one of the Seven Wonders of the World
Petra is the main attraction of Jordan, and deservedly so. It is quite spectacular. If you don’t know what Petra is, you may have seen it anyway, it has been used as a filming location in a couple of movies, most famously the building known as the Treasury is used as the last resting place of the Holy Grail in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
Petra was the capital of the Nabatean kingdom. It is located in the middle of the desert, and all the buildings are chilseled in to the side of the rocks, it is an amazing sight so see, there is a reason why Petra is on the new list of the seven wonders of the world.
Petra was lost for many years, at least to the outside world, but was rediscovered in the early eighteenhundreds.
When you go to Petra you start out at the Petra Visitors center that is located in the town of Wadi Musa, which is likely also where you will be staying if you want to spend more than one day in Petra, which I would highly recommend.
You can get to Petra from the visitors center either by walking, or by hiring an electric car with a driver, or by horse/donkey. I chose to walk. The trail starts out as just a gravel road, where you start seeing small carved huts and caves, but after about one kilometre you get to the Siq.
The walk to Petra from the visitors center is about 25-30 minutes, here is a 2 minute supercut.
The Siq
The Siq is a narrow gorge that leads directly to The Treasury. The Siq was formed when the mountain broke in two pieces. It is in itself an astonishing experience walking through The Siq, especially if you, like me, come from an extremely flat country. The tall cliffsides imposing on you from both sides are just aweinspiring.
The Treasury
Petra is much more than just The Treasury, it is a huge area that spans 264 square kilometers. But there is a reason that The Treasury is the most famous of it’s buildings. First of all, it is just an impressive sight, and it is one of the two most well preserved buildings in Petra, and secondly it is the first thing you see when you enter Petra. Imagine being the ones who rediscovered it a couple of hundred years ago, just walking down a small path through the cliffs and suddenly being met by this sight.
It is just really really impressive. So here is a bunch more pictures.
The Monestary
The second most famous building in Petra is the monestary. It is a bit of a a hike to get there, it took me about an hour, but I am quite slow at climbing stairs cause I suffer from a fear of heights. The hike is about 850 stairs that are neither new nor well maintained. But I made it and it was totally worth the hike, and it was also another step in my work to conquor my fear of heights.
Petra is a huge place, and I have far from covered it all here,nor have I seen it all. But I hope you have a bit of an impression of what you can experience at Petra after reading this article. It is one of the most memorable places I have ever visited, and I would like to go back some day.
