Aqaba, Jordan

March 24, 2023

When I was in the 5th or 6th grade, I wrote a term paper about Petra in Jordan. I imagine I originally read about it in a National Geographic magazine and it fascinated me. This stop to see Petra was one of the main reasons we are taking this cruise. Today, I was going to see the place that excited my imagination all those years ago.

Petra is an archeological site about two hours drive from the port of Aqaba. We booked an excursion with the ship because of the distance we had to travel, and left for Petra around 8:00 am. Over half of the passengers aboard the ship were headed to Petra, so we knew to expect a crowd.

The drive through the Jordanian countryside was very interesting. The sun was shining through my window and I couldn’t get very many pictures. I did, however, manage to get these:

We were headed to the town of Wadi Musa which is the gateway to Petra and happens to be where our guide, Muhammad, lives. It’s quite the tourist friendly town with most of the signage in English. This is also where we would come back to for lunch after we finished visiting Petra.

Our friends, Karin and Michael, were also on the tour and we decided to hike together. I say “hike” because that is what it is. It was about 5 mile round trip for Karin and me. Brian and Michael added a couple miles to that total because they went deeper into Petra.

The city of Petra was totally hand carved out of sandstone and was covered for hundreds of years by sand. Because of the soft nature of sandstone, most of the decoration and inscriptions have been worn away. It was built by Nabataeans, an ancient people, about 2,000 years ago and, after the Romans defeated them in the second century, was a developed into flourishing trade site. At its peak, the population is estimated to have been about 30,000 people. After trade routes moved to the sea, Petra declined and was abandoned by the 7th century A.D. and was forgotten. It was rediscovered in 1812. About 15% of the city has been uncovered.

The walk into Petra is downhill on sand and gravel interspersed with marble pavers left by the Romans. The first part of our walk took us down toward the siq, or narrow canyon. The ruins started appearing almost immediately.

The siq is an absolutely beautiful place that reminded me of Antelope Canyon in Arizona. The canyon was narrow and winding and we competed with golf carts carrying people who didn’t want to walk into the city. You could ride a horse down to the siq, but not through it. The owners of the horses and golf carts were making good money this day.

At the end of the siq, we caught a glimpse of what was to come, the Treasury Building.

I was finally in Petra, and I couldn’t have been happier!

Our guide led us into the city and he was pleasantly surprised. It was nowhere nearly as crowded as he had expected. He led us down roads lined with ruins and many Bedouin souvenir sellers. Muhammad was happy to share, as he could, which sellers sold authentic silver and items and which did not. It was noisy, sort of chaotic, and very, very, interesting. Pictures are better than my words.

Karin and I decided to head back to town with maybe a little shopping along the way. Brian and Michael headed on for awhile. They couldn’t go as far as they might want to due to time constraints. Here are some pictures Brian took:

The hike back was a haul for me since we were now going uphill. Thankfully, the weather was beautiful but it was starting to warm up. Karin and I did some silver jewelry shopping and took many rest stops along the way. We made it back to the Petra Palace Hotel for our buffet lunch. We were hungry and it was delicious. In fact, I was so hungry that I forgot to take any pictures of the abundant food. I can say the the local beer I had was so refreshing! The men arrived a short while later and, after lunch, we headed back on the bus to begin our drive back to the ship.

We hadn’t gotten too very far before the driver notice a red warning light on the bus and we needed to stop to get the brakes repaired. Muhammad told us the repair truck would be there within a few minutes and that the repair wouldn’t take too long. He was correct. We had stopped at a lovely scenic viewpoint so all was good.

It was just starting to become dark when we got to Aqaba.

We were tired, so Brian and I decided to return to our cabin and have room service. We ate on our balcony and listened to Aqaba come to life. This was the start of Ramadan and observant Muslims had not eaten or had anything to drink all day (from sunrise to sunset) and now it was time to enjoy a meal. We could hear the call to prayer echo over the city. Life is good!

By the way, when you spend the day hiking in the desert, this is what you order for dinner: