Jordan Day 2 10-27-09

PETRA!!!

I am so thrilled to post pictures from Petra on here!

Okay, so we woke up early this day. Maybe around five? Because we wanted to get there when it wasn't hot, have the most time we could, and be able to go on a few hikes.

So. Here goes!

We walked down into the valley/canyon that leads to the entrance to Petra. It was really cool, and reminded me of the narrows in Southern Utah. There were a bunch of pilgrimage stops down the canyon, too, where pilgrims coming to Petra would stop and pay tribute to the gods.

When we finally saw the famous treasury of Petra peek out behind the rock canyon walls, I got so so excited!

Petra was an ancient Nabbataean city, and the carvings out of the walls of the rock were tombs for them. They, like the Egyptians, paid a lot of attention to how their bodies were going to be kept in the after-life. Are you ready for pictures? Here you go!

The beginning of the walk down to Petra!

These are some random tombs that are in the entrance.

Me with my headset, listening to Sumir....

Shot of the narrows!

This is one of the tribute places!

Me and Maurie with some narrows...

This is the treasury, the first view that we got, just peeking out of the canyon!

Me and the treasury! It is so, so big. Look at the little people on the steps!

Me and some other students on the steps in the opening of the treasury. I think I'm to the left of Taren, who is in the red shirt in the middle.

This is a picture from the steps of the treasury looking back to the canyon that we came out of to get to petra.

Just a picture of me and the treasury!

Okay, so we learned that the treasury is the best preserved tomb in Petra, because it is away from the wind and not exposed to the elements. It is nearly perfect, except there was one column missing, which they rebuilt, and then there were a lot of gunshot holes in the walls, which apparently used to be a "sport," to try to hit all the different figures on the treasury..

After that we continued on... I think I'm going to let pictures narrate it, with little captions on them, okay? okay. here goes.

These were some tombs that we walked down and they were just on the side. The tombs were everywhere!

They had a mock-ancient Nabbataean village set up, and people got to sword fight with the people and we saw how they make bread and etc.

These are the royal tombs, which are really elaborate and impressive, but have been exposed to the elements and kind of worn down.

An amphitheater in Petra. You know they were a wealthy civilization because they had things like this to entertain them. Sweet, right?

This is an excavation site that a woman from Brown University did. Brother Brown was telling us about how he knew her (because he graduated from Brown) and Sumir totally cut him off, said he knew her too, and started bragging about how well they knew each other and how she'd always tell him things and etc, etc. I was so annoyed. This was one of those times I wanted to tell him off and tell him to let Brother Brown speak. But...anway...cool site! We could walk up and down these steps, too, that were ancient. It was really cool.

This was a temple dedicated to the Paroah's daughter. We went inside later, a group of three of us, when we had free time, and we found this awesome staircase with this ancient stairs going up into a top level. We really wanted to go up and explore, but decided that we maybe shouldn't since we were alone, and there were a couple guys inside with us, just in another room, that we didn't know, and we didn't know if it was safe. But anyway, it was coool. Huge!

Alright. This is the part of the day that we went on a hike before lunch. There were two hikes available to us, and this was one of them. It was to a monastery up on the top of one of the mountains. And I was going to do it, no matter what. So here goes!

This is about the half-way mark on the hike...it was pretty cool. And, of course, my own friendly donkey. Lovely. :)

This is the monastery! It is so so huge! I'd say about three times the size of the treasury! So worth the hike in the hot, hot sun!

All of us in front of the Monastery...you can also check out the people for size in these pictures..

This was an extra little hike to a viewpoint called "The End of the World." I don't know if my pictures show it very well, but this was an awesome viewpoint of the whole mountain range. We were up so, so high.

This is me and Sarah at the End of the World! And yes, I'm sporting a fanny. I thought I never would again after Disneyland and purple overalls....but here I am. So there you go. Everything comes back in style, right?

This is the Jordinian flag :)

After lunch we had the opportunity to go on another hike to a anicent altar, but I didn't have very much water left, and so I decided not to go. Instead I went around with some people and went and explored more. This is a picture of me riding a horse back out to the busses. We were allowed to ride horses out, for three dollars :) And so I said YES! My horse's name was Michael Jackson. Nice.

Okay, after this we went on the bus for a long time, and we arrived at our hotel in Amman around six o'clock. Then we went to a shop in a mall near our hotel that sells pirated movies... I didn't get any, cause I figured with netflix and what not, I have most of the movies that I want. Some people got some good deals though.

Anyway, I had the help of a really nice receptionist at the hotel that night. I will definitely always remember people I have met on my travels who are really kind to me!

SO, there you go! Jordan Day 2! Whew!