petra!

now you'll be able to see why petra is the biggest tourist attraction in jordan and why it's nominated to be one of the new 7 wonders of the world. petra was mostly built by the nabataeans, who used it as their capital city. they settled in petra around the 7th century BC. also, around the time of christ and rome the city flourished for more than 400 years and it was occupied by the roman legions of emperor trajan in 106 AD. petra was "lost" from around the 16th century until 1812 when a swiss explorer "found" it. the explorer is pretty interesting. he renounced his country and religion to live in the middle east and be muslim. he ultimately became sort of a muslim holy man.

any way, petra is beautiful and HUGE! it's referred to as the rose red city because of the colors of the cliffs when the sun hits them. it is pretty amazing.

these are some photos of the walk into petra. from the front gate it takes about an hour to get to the treasury (one of the main sights in petra)

tombs, homes, and stairs carved into the cliffs.

the siq

the siq is the entry way to petra. it was created by seismic activity, not water. it's a winding path through the cliffs. the pictures may not show the magnitude of this but the cliffs on either side are HUGE! walking through the siq really makes you feel like a little ant. there are still old water tubes on the sides of it that were put there in ancient time to bring water to the city.

the start of the siq. notice where there used to be an arch... i think that would've given away the sneaky location of the city though.

close up of the striations on the walls of the siq

portions of the path through the siq are paved. this is some of the original paving that still remains.

remnants of a statue

possibly the most famous petra picture... the moment you first see the treasury through the siq.

the treasury

one of my better camel pictures. although it's cheapened by the fact that it was a pretty tame camel, used for camel rides.














close ups of the inside of a residence carved into the cliffs. the color is pretty amazing.

jeff, in all his shaven head and kafia wearing glory, with the treasury in the background

pictures from the street of facades...