One of my favorite places I’ve been to in all my travels has to be The Ancient City of Petra in Jordan. Petra is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and a New 7 Wonder of the World, so there are plenty of resources for you to get detailed information about it. BBC calls Petra a top 40 must see place before you die, and UNESCO says it’s “one of the most precious cultural properties of man’s cultural heritage”. These are very bold statements, and I agree with both wholeheartedly.
I don’t have much to say about Petra that you can’t read on 100′s of other sites, but I do have a couple pointers. The city is pretty big and spread out, but be sure to go all the way to the end where you’ll reach a magnificent view over the Wadi Araba basin. This is also where one of the biggest and most memorable buildings in Petra, The Treasury, is located. You’ll regret it if you get lazy and skip out early. If you’re not in good health or physical shape, don’t worry, there are a million locals who will take you by donkey or camel, although it’s a nice hike.
The other pointer I want to give you for Petra is choose your time of day wisely. Jordan is in the middle east, it can get very hot. I found it best to start in the afternoon. This meant I had to rush a bit, but it also meant less heat, and less crowds. There were still a lot of people for the first hour or 2 we were there, but as it got towards late afternoon, most people had already started back and we got photos of everything with no people in the way. Petra can get pretty crowded, especially around the highlights, so it was nice to get photos without the random people in them.
Other than that, I just want to strongly urge you to visit, and to show you a bunch of my Petra photos.
An example of the sophisticated canal water system at Petra
Approaching the first view of the treasury through the narrows
The most famous building of Petra: The Treasury
The boring inside of the Treasury building
The crowds out front of the Treasury at Petra
A camel drinking out of a water bottle
The street of facades leading from the Treasury to the Theater
The theater of Petra
The area of Petra with all the tombs built into it
Sextus Florentinus' Tomb across from the theater
The view of Petra looking off the cliff where the tombs are located
The Mountains Around Petra
The Colonnaded Street, a main thoroughfare in Ancient Petra
A group of columns which have collapsed with the large tombs in the background
The Qasr Al-Bint Temple
A donkey looking out into the mountains
Walking Down Stairs At Petra
Goats up on the mountain side along the Monastery route
A man riding a donkey barely squeezing through the little tunnel
A man taking his group of donkeys back down the route through Petra
A goat steeling some food from a vendor and their baby
The Monastery hidden deep in the mountains of Petra
A donkey looking out off the cliff towards Israel
Way Back To Petra
At the end of the day we got the Treasury to ourselves
The 3rd addition to the Indiana Jones collection filmed a scene in Petra and brought a lot of eyes to the ancient city. It’s easy to get your hands on a copy of the film in Petra, they embrace he fame the movie brought to their city.
More Photos of Petra
At the end of the day we got the Treasury to ourselves
Al Siq with nobody in it at the end of the day
A camel wrangler in a cowboy hat
A camel drinking out of a water bottle
A cart taking someone through Al Siq
A cat in the middle of the mountains
Hiking along the path to the Monastery
A group of columns which have collapsed with the large tombs in the background
The Colonnaded Street, a main thoroughfare in Ancient Petra
A donkey hanging out along the route to the Monastery
A donkey looking out off the cliff towards Israel
A man leading his donkeys with a small child
A donkey keeping cool in a little man-made cave
A man riding a donkey barely squeezing through the little tunnel
A donkey looking out into the mountains
Approaching the first view of the treasury through the narrows
A goat steeling some food from a vendor and their baby
Some men dressed in traditional guard costumes
The boring inside of the Treasury building
The Lion Triclinium of Petra
A Local Man In the Petra Narrows
A man in the Al Siq narrows
A man leading his donkeys through the main route at Petra
A man taking his group of donkeys back down the route through Petra
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