you enter petra by way of the siq, a geological phenomenon so awe-inspiring that it merits a national park of its own- the siq is a long, narrow, twisting split between two behemothic rock faces, which was formed naturally by a combination of cracks in the once-unified sandstone mountains and waterflow. ambling along it is a magical entrance to the city of petra, with the walls towering on either side of you in crazily patterned red-orange-gold-brown color patterns towards the sliver of blue sky between them, and nabatean carvings and irrigation channels guiding your way forward.
eventually a bend in the path reveals your first glimpse of petra's most-famous/photographed building: the treasury.
perfectly preserved, it presides over the valley with its majestic rose-red columns and grand scale.
camels, donkeys and horses muddle around the valley floor with offers of rides, but we declined and found our own way around petra. our first adventure, shortly after the treasury, was to leave the main (and crowded) tourist path to follow a set of stairs that zig-zagged up into the ridges. after quite a climb, we arrived at the high place of sacrifice, which afforded us our first aerial view of petra- it is a beautiful way to see the site, and to grasp the harsh and beautiful scale of the landscape that characterizes it.
then instead of returning back the way we came, we took a trail that cut through the back valley of the city, marveling at the rock formations/colors and the ruins of tombs and other structures along the way.
along this trail we also got our first clue that many of the bedouins of petra live in the infinite caves of its hills, making their living from tourism. it was great to get off the beaten path and see a quieter side of petra hiking through the hills. the trail spit us out at the back end of the main valley, and we decided to climb up to the monastery, since we'd heard that the site is best in the late afternoon sun. after another stair-filled hike up, the monastery made the climb very well worth it- it is a building of similar style to the treasury, but golden instead of rose, and much more approachable due to the lesser number of tourists who make the trek up.
we then hiked a bit further to sit on the top of a hill for an 'end-of-the-world' type of view across the mountains and the desert beyond. a bedouin flute player graced us with his music, which echoed beautifully off the hills and added to the unique tranquil atmosphere. not wanting to get caught in the dark, we decided not to wait for sunset, and began to head back down. but first we decided to investigate a rumor we'd heard of a scramble trail to the top of the monastery itself. when we encountered a 'no climbing' sign, we were about to give up when a couple of friendly bedouins walked over and said 'of course you can climb, follow us'. five minutes of rock-climbing later, we were literally standing on the roof of the ancient monument, gazing at the setting sun ahead and the rest of petra behind. we sat there until sundown with ibrahim and mohammed, our new bedouin friends, and marveled at how comfortably they jumped among the rocks, and at the fact that we were actually on top of the monastery.
this was our first of many experiences this weekend with how incredibly kind, welcoming, and hospitable the bedouins are- once the sun had set they led us back down to the base of the monastery hill, and since by then it was really dark, told us to walk with them to the bedouin village instead of wandering out the main route by ourselves. so we walked along, lit by the stars and the lights of their cigarettes, toward the small village where a couple thousand bedouin live- others of them choose to live in a community in the caves on the other side of petra. ibrahim and mohammed spoke english very well, and knew the basics of about seven different languages, all of which they learned from talking with tourists- they had not even finished high school. they were also quite the comedians- when we were on the monastery the joke was "jump! it's okay- if you die, we have lots of tombs here!", and the banter on the way to the village included "i am popeye and you are zeituna"- an inter-language play on words: zeituna means olive in arabic, but english speakers might hear "ze/the tuna". anyway, after they called our hotel manager, who was scheduled to pick us up from petra that evening, and explained how/why/where we were in the bedouin village instead of at the main gate, we said good night to our new friends.
the next morning we got up early enough to beat the crowds to the treasury, then walked over to see the royal tombs. a bedouin girl, maryam, saw us walking and invited us into her shop for tea, so we sat and chatted with her for a while and it was interesting to learn about her way of life. we then followed the bedouins' suggestion and hiked up the ridge behind the royal tombs, which eventually led to a lookout point above the treasury, very cool to see. on the way back we stopped to enjoy the view out over the whole city and listen to some bob marley tunes with ibrahim and mohammed.
next we headed back down to see the rest of the main ruins like the great temple, qasr al-bint, and a beautifully preserved mosaic church floor.
we then decided to make the trek out to the snake monument, which the bedouins had told us was near the community of caves where they live. when we reached their village we were joined by three quick-footed bedouin children who took our hands and showed us the trail through the rocks to the snake monument.
talking with them was a bit of a challenge since they spoke only colloquial, but with smiles, gestures, and a little arabic we enjoyed getting to know them. on the way back down one of the girls cut her foot, and since a bandaid wasn't working, ali volunteered to give the girl a pair of her socks to wear, which i think made the girl happy enough to forget about her foot. our last adventure was exploring a beautiful canyon with some (tiny) natural springs, and then it was time to head for the bus back home, by way of the included-in-expensive-ticket-price horse ride :)
petra would have been an amazing experience with even just the ruins, or just the landscape, but i think i will remember it most for the warm friendliness of the bedouins and our off-the-beaten-path adventures with them that made the weekend truly incredible.
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