Delicious eggs benedict
After breakfast, we took a quick walk outside to enjoy the view. We then headed back to our room and got our things together for our adventure into Petra. We packed lots of water and snacks as well as a battery pack for charging our phones.
The hotel from outside
The entrance to Petra starts at the visitor center which was a short, but intense, drive from the hotel. Once we parked, relatively close, we walked to the visitor's center and got our tickets by showing our Jordan passes. We then walked into the park.
The free museum before the visitor's center
There are four trails in the park, the main trail which is 4 km, the monastery trail, which is 1.6 km and includes 800 stairs with a climb of 186 meters, the high place of sacrifice trail, which is 3.5 km and has an elevation gain of 159 meters, and the Al-Khubtha trail which has 600 stairs and a climb of 156 meters. We decided to walk the main trail and then the Al-Khubtha trail.
Upon entering, many people are there to try and sell you a horse ride to the start of the canyon. Supposedly it's included in the ticket price, however, they often demand a tip of 10JOD which is about 14USD. They do haggle here, which before Hunter and I agreed to ride, we tried to do, but they rushed and never confirmed my offer of 10JOD for both of us to go. Nonetheless, we wanted to do it, so we got on two horses and were lead towards the canyon. They stopped during the walk and took pictures of us too. It was quite nice. When we got close to the end, the person walking me was quite aggressive in wanting 10JOD each, but I was firm and said no, at the start they said 10 for both, but we settled on 15 total which is about 20 USD. Honestly, it's not a bad price for a horse ride, it's just a little frustrating not having a set price at the start and getting into a haggling war at the end.
About 10-15 minutes later, we came across the famous Treasury. It was quite the sight! It is the most elaborate and intact temple in Petra. It is called the treasury because the Bedouins believed it contained the treasures of an Egyptian Pharoah. We spent about 30 minutes here taking pictures and enjoying the magnificent structure craved into the face of sandstone rock. We climbed up a little trail off to the side to get some pictures with fewer people in sight too.
The first view of the Treasury
The Treasury
Camels!
Below the Treasury there appeared to be a tomb
If you are interested in seeing all of Petra from home, check out this amazing website: https://zamaniproject.org/site-jordan-petra.html
It has incredible documentation of the park including videos, 3D models, and Panorama tours.
We first stopped and took a side trail to see the four royal tombs. The colours in the sandstone rock were beautiful! They were perched on a cliff up a near-vertical wall. We then continued climbing the stairs up Al-Khubtha trail.
Close up of the colours in the roof
If you look closely you can see the sandstone swirls on the roof
Sandstone swirls in the stairs
Some of the stairs were not in the best shape
Looking at some of the stairs we climbed from above
Hunter was terrified when I did this!
Desert cats like me
They are very small and soft
our first view of the Treasury from above
Sitting in the tent at the edge to view the Tresury
Hunter was not a fan of being so close to the edge
Another cat!
Such pretty eyes
We found out hotel while hiking
The climb back to the top of the stairs
Way up there is where we were on our climb to the lookout
Driving back to our hotel
When we got back to our hotel, we were exceptionally hungry as we only packed snacks and not a full lunch. We decided to eat at the bar restaurant at the hotel. It was quite reasonably priced. Hunter ordered a burger for 7.50JOD (11USD) and I ordered an Arab style chicken wrap for 5JOD (7USD). The wrap was prepared with a local type of seasoning which was quite delicious.
This was in the lobby of our hotel
Our dinner
Sunset
After eating we went to our room and debated taking a nap. We had about 2-3 hours until our next nighttime activity and sometimes taking a nap is a dangerous game with us (we don't always like to wake up). We decided to watch some TV which worked for a bit, but our eyes grew heavy. We set an alarm for 7pm and took a nap. When the alarm went off, we jumped out of bed trying to wake up. While we were still quite tired, we powered through and got ourselves ready.
What are we doing at 7pm at night you might ask? Well before leaving the Petra park, we bought tickets to Petra at Night! Petra at Night is an event that runs on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays only where after sun sets you get to walk to the Treasury via candlelight. When you arrive at the Treasury, Bedouins are playing songs and instruments and tea is being passed out. Seeing the treasury light by candles was spectacular and I'll let the photos take over now to show how magical it felt.
Note: All of these photos are taken with my phone which is a Pixel 3a. I am seriously amazed with its camera, especially night sight mode. If you need a new phone, I highly recommend getting a Pixel!
So incredible! Thank you for all the photos! What an amazing place!
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