Petra Weekend!

The weekend was amazing and extremely exhausting. We went to Petra and some other sites in the area. We left early on Saturday morning and traveled five hours to the Dana nature preserve, where we stayed in the Rummana tent camp. The tent camp was really cool, it is situated in a valley with beautiful mountains surrounding it. The rest of the day Saturday we hiked, I completed two of the four trails and I did one of them twice. One of the trails went up on top of the tallest mountain and gave amazing views all around, this trail took about two hours to complete. The other trail I did was the trail to the caves. The caves are three stories high and you can climb all around inside them. I did this trail twice with two different groups of people because it was my favorite, this trail took about one and a half hours to complete. That night we stayed in cloth tents, and our beds were better than the ones in Umm El Jimal. The next morning we got up early to go to Petra which is about an hour and a half drive away. Petra was absolutely amazing. Our hotel was about a five minute walk away from the gate of Petra. After you enter the gate you walk through the siiq, a path through tall cliffs of sandstone. Then you see the crowning glory of Petra which is the treasury. For those who don't know Petra is an ancient city, what makes it so special is the facades of the caves. The ancient peoples carved elaborate designs and pillars on the front of their caves as well as many other free standing temples that are very well preserved. The treasury is the first façade you see and is in many movies like Indiana Jones. After visiting the Treasury we walked down the paths were there were many façade caves and a large theatre. We went through some of the churches and got special privileges because my professor knows the archaeologist working there. Then we climbed up a mountain to the monastery. The stairs to the monastery were very sketchy in some places and someone from our group 780 counted stairs. The monastery was another huge façade and we were able to go in this cave, and while we were in the cave one of my friends gave me ballet lessons. Then we climbed about 100 more steps to the viewpoint, where you not only got a very good view of the monastery but also the surrounding mountains. After we relaxed at the monastery café, myself and three other students hiked over to the high place. The high place is back near the entrance of Petra and is another climb up about 500 steps, to view the valley of Petra. The valley of Petra is where the churches and temples are. Then we hiked out and went back to the hotel. Later that night some of went to a bar in a tomb right outside the gate of Petra. Then today we got to sleep in until 7:30 the latest I have gotten up the entire trip. Then we went to little Petra and Behda. Little Petra is a smaller scale version of Petra and has less facades. We climbed up the mountain in little Petra and played around on the rocks and in the caves. Behda was an old Nabataean city that has partial reconstruction. Then we came back to Umm El Jimal after a six hour bus ride. We are all exhausted from all the hiking and have been sleeping really well in real beds. The entire time I have been feeling great. I was a little slower than everyone else climbing the steps but for everything else I was able to keep up. I had a great time this weekend, and got to see finally see Petra where I have always wanted to go

The Siiq into Petra

The caves in the Rummana tent camp

The Monastery at Petra

The treasury at Petra

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