Posterous theme by Cory Watilo

Petra (Part 2)

We were still a long way away from our final destination point, the Treasury, and yet I was already in awe of the carved spaces around us. Looking up, the sky was darkening and the stars were peeking out.

We walked for another few minutes before the gravel below us started changing to large, well-shaped cobbles – a paved road. Traveling along it, the gentle slope began to drop more quickly, and we were facing the opening to a chasm between the two rock faces. Between them, the path continued, leading us forward by the red-gold glow of the candles on the rocks. Here, we bumped into Kelsey, who was sitting in the middle of the path to take long exposure shots of the night sky. Looking up, there were hundreds of stars, the milky way, the big dipper, all framed between the towering stone walls on either side of us. We continued onwards in near silence, barely hearing our own footsteps on the rock.

Turning along the twisting path, I was suddenly overcome by the knowledge that, for thousands of years, footsteps had smoothed the rocks beneath our feet. Thousands of people had breathed here, walked here, crowded between the stones, admired the stars in the night sky above. Thousands of people had lived here, died here, and carved out the rocks that surrounded us. Walking along, it was overwhelming to feel their presence weighing down and around me.

I walked forwards, alone, in silence, and thoughtful, following the road as it curved around to the right. Ahead, I thought I saw more light, and in the distance, the sound of a wooden flute cut through the air. As the music stopped, a wave of applause carried from some distant spot. I rounded the bend, and looked up ahead.

Before me, two hundred candles and two hundred bodies were arranged in neat rows before the Treasury. The candles lit it softly, casting long shadows over its features. I sat down at the back, away from the crowds, as the music resumed. This time, a string of some kind was playing.

I was joined by Mike, Erin, and Kelsey, and a man came around offering cups of tea. Together, we sat, and listened as a local man got up to tell a myth about Petra. When he had finished, the show was over and the crowd began to disperse. We waited in the shadows until they had passed, then began walking back together, with the guards trailing just behind us. I started walking with one of them, who turned out to be the creator of the Petra by Night program, a born in the area, and with lots of good travel tips and suggestions for what to do during the day in Petra. He also invited me to come back and work for him at his Travel Agency if I wanted during the next high season. It was pretty interesting!

When we reached the gate, we rejoined the group for a reminder of the plans for the next day’s entry. Then, Mike, Erin, and I began the journey back to our hostel. We climbed the mountain, went through the lobby and up the stairs, straight to the roof. There was this amazing swinging bench, and so for the first time since we arrived we sat, barefoot, and dangled our feet as we swung, looking down at the lights of Wadi Musa (the city around Petra). It was wonderful.

We went to sleep, waking up all to early to start again. We grabbed breakfast in the lower levels of the hostel, and I swiped some food for the buffet for lunch. We got our things together and headed down the hill to meet up with the rest of our group, as well as those people arriving for the day trip, to go into Petra. Because we’re excavators, we get in for free (usual entrance fee is around 50 dollars) so we had to go in together. The daylight revealed the rocks around us in a way that the night had not – their detail was awesome. Because we were feeling adventurous, we three tried to find a secret path that the guards had told us about, that would lead to the High Place of Sacrifice. After 30 minutes of hunting for a path, we gave up and started along the traditional route to the Treasury and beyond. We decided to go to the furthest and highest point, the Monastery, first, because it was getting so hot and there was an 800 step climb. After walking for around 20 minutes, we arrived at the base of the staircase, carved out of the sandstone. We started to climb.

What the information pamphlet hadn’t mentioned was that the steps to the Monastery were not only uneven, but also HUGE. I was counting, and after 100 stairs I was already wondering if we’d make it to the top. Fortunately, around every 100 stairs there were Bedouin tents selling various knickknacks, all at a hugely inflated price, so we’d keep up our pace just to rush past. People in Petra are far more aggressive than elsewhere, with many children trying to sell postcards and using their tears to persuade you. It was pretty unpleasant, and we were asked at least 40 times if we wanted to ride a donkey up. Which we didn’t.

By about the 500th step, we (at least, Erin and I) were starting to tire, and could feel muscles in our legs that we didn’t know we had. One thing to be said for the uneven steps, though, is that you work so many muscles at once that they hurt uniformly. By step 700, we were panting hard, and sweating so much in the heat that no matter how much water we drank, we still felt thirsty. Yet looking up, we could see the Monastery roof cutting through the mountain face, and we were encouraged forward by the other hikers on their way down. We continued uphill until we were hit in the face by a breeze, a sure sign we were near the top. We climbed up, up, up, to the very highest step, and then down again into a valley. We looked to our right, and gasped. Before us was a massive rock building, carved directly from the mountaintop. It was stunning. We took off our backpacks to look around, with massive sweat stains everywhere that they’d touched our skin. Then, feeling especially adventurous, we climbed up into the Monastery, whose entrance was about 4 feet above ground level. Though the inside was bare but for an altar area, it was such a shock to think that the whole space had been carved out.

We climbed up to a lookout, and saw the mountains extending all around us. Mike stopped to buy a cup of tea and drink it from the highest point, and we sat and admired the view.

When our excitement had dulled a bit, we went into a carved cavern with a skylight, which must once have been someone’s home, and sat to enjoy our lunch. Then, we started the downhill trek.

800 steps later, we were at the bottom, and starting to feel our exhaustion. Still, we pushed forwards, heading back towards the Treasury. On the way, we stopped into one of the Royal tombs to explore a little further, then sat to think of our next possible hurdle – the High Place of Sacrifice. Exhausted and a little nervous, we began the climb. This time, I chose not to count steps until the way down, since we had no idea what was ahead.

There were so many steps, and we were starting to really feel the previous hike. As Erin and I struggled up the first hundred or so, I started to get a second wind, especially since the stairs were a bit shorter and more uniform. Even so, there was no sign of reaching the end, and we were holding our legs to keep ourselves moving up. After climbing hard for 30 minutes, Erin sat to take a break with Mike, and I went ahead to see if we were close. Not even 25 steps further, the path levelled and the two Obelisks at the top became visible. Even so, we still had a hundred steps to go.  At this point, Erin really started to fade. By the time we’d reached the last 50 steps, she was crawling on all fours, telling us not to touch her, and telling Mike she would kill him for making us do this. Meanwhile, Mike and I had sat down because we were laughing so hard our sides were splitting.

Finallly, we reached the top, and stood in the area where animals were sacrificed, amidst channels to collect the blood from them. Erin walked ahead, lay down on the precipice, and claimed she was dead. We went to join her. The view was unbelievable.

While we were at the top, we met a boy from Boston who’d just come to Jordan a day previously from Birthright in Israel. He was getting quite a bit of uncomfortable attention from a Bedouin lady selling wares at the top, so we kept him company as a barrier. We definitely warmed to him, too, when he took a photo of us and said that we totally looked like Archaeologists. What a guy.

After a quick rest, we realized that we were nearly out of time to get back to our meeting point, and started climbing fairly briskly back down. The staircase is only steps from the Treasury, and since it’s on the way back we went through it to get a closer look. We took photos, as the crowds had really dispersed by 3 pm. While I was taking a picture of Mike in front of the Treasury, a boy with a camel came up and asked me if I wanted to ride a Jamil. I said no thank you. He said, once in a lifetime experience. I said, I’ve already ridden on one twice. Thanks. We walked away to find Erin, who’d joined a few of our group to sit at shop a little ways away, and began a slow walk back. We were all pretty tired, irritable, and sick of being accosted for sales at every turn. When we had left the Siq and were going up the gravel path back to the gate, we were asked twice if we wanted to ride a horse back, free with our ticket. Erin impatiently responded “No it’s not!” and walked away. Of course, we hadn’t paid for tickets so we had no idea, but we didn’t say anything about that.

We reached the gate tired, but with ten minutes to spare, so we went to freshen up in the bathrooms. Taking off our backpacks, we were plastered with sweat on our backs and where the straps had hit. It was ridiculous. We noticed the woman next to us was washing her face and hands, too, in jeans and a t-shirt, and we both eyed each other curiously. Then, she pulled on a long robe, hijab, and face covering, and in seconds was wearing a full burkha. It was surprising, and humanizing, to see her transformation. Both Erin and I were surprised and felt moved by the experience.

 

We walked out, grabbed another 1.5L each of water (we’d all run out, though we’d each been

carrying 3L), and bought ice creams. Then, as the others joined us, the bus arrived. We

clambered on. As it drove to the top of the hill, I could see the place where the Monastery peeked out from between the mountains, in line with the High Place of Sacrifice as well as two of the highest points. It was so cool to think we’d just been there!

By the next town a few km later, the exhaustion started to hit and the bus quieted as 19 sleepy people napped their way back to Humayma. We couldn’t keep our eyes open. We arrived back at Shokini, no longer on vacation, but completely satisfied with our amazing day off.

The past work week has been really satisfying, as well – we finished SQ 20, and I’ve drawn the top plan, a pretty detailed task which I found completely delightful. I also had the chance to see the Aqaba museum, where there’s an entire room (albeit, a very small room) devoted to Humayma. Pretty cool! Now that the week is over, we’re looking forward to a quiet day off near home. I honestly can’t wait, but it’s amazing to think that we’re already into the last week. Now that it’s coming to a close, it’s hard to believe how much we’ve seen and done. What an unbelievable experience so far.

And just to think, there’s still more to come!