Day 20: Petra, Jordan
After breakfast at our hotel, we begin our exploration of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Petra, the most famous site in Jordan, by walking across the road and entering the main gate. We walk through the long, cool, and mysterious chasm (known as the Siq), a narrow gorge with steeply rising sides that all but obliterate the sun.
Siq
The Nabataeans, an industrious Arab people who settled in southern Jordan more than 2,000 years ago, created an impressive city combining massive architecture with an ingenious complex of dams and water channels. Once we pass through the Siq, the Treasury comes into view with its intricately carved facade.
We continue on as the ancient city gradually unfolds, one monument leading to the next. The city of Petra flourished for over 400 years around the time of Rome, and the Petra basin boasts over 800 individual monuments, including buildings, tombs, baths, funerary halls, temples, arched gateways, and colonnaded streets.
The Treasury
When we reach the basin, we stop for lunch. After lunch, we retrace our path back through the Siq then to the hotel by way of donkey, camel, horse carriage or by foot.
This evening all guests enjoy a lecture, followed by a festive Bedouin feast and show at nearby “Little Petra.”
