Tuesday 19th January - Petra

Today was the last day of our three day entrance ticket to Petra and we were glad to see that the sun had returned after yesterday’s rain.  It was cold though, which was a bit of a shock as we are used to it getting hot once the sun is up, and we were caught out as we were just wearing our lightweight tops.

Back down the Siq and past the now familiar Treasury building,

we continued on to Petra Church, originally a Nabatean structure that was redesigned and expanded in the Byzantine period.  Anne particularly liked the camel mosaic, although a local Bedouin said it was a giraffe; we’ll let you decide. 

Behind is the smaller Blue Church, with its striking blue columns,

and below is the Temple of the Winged Lions (although the lions are long gone).

We spent the rest of the day seeking out some of the less visited parts of Petra, away from the tourists, such as Al-Habis, a hill overlooking the central area and on which a small Crusader castle was built.  The climb up around the back of the hill led us by a couple of quiet wadis, past the house of one of the last residents of Petra (“Why would I [leave] ... this is my home; I’ve always lived here”) and at the top we were rewarded by another spectacular view which seemed like a good place for lunch. SPOT

In the afternoon we walked up past Bedouin settlements to Snake Monument, a curved stone top on a rock tomb that resembles a snake.  On our way back we were accompanied most of the way by a very persistent four year old girl who gave us the choice of “Give me a biscuit” or “Give me a Dinar”, which we heard all too often as we wandered around the site (that and “Do you want a donkey/camel ride?” and “Postcards, 1 Dinar”).

When we stopped for a coffee we were slightly concerned for the headless camel.

By this time four days of walking was starting to take its toll on our legs, which were feeling heavier with every step, so we slowly made our way back up the Siq for a final time and were glad to reach the Land Rover.  There were no more overland vehicles in the car park this afternoon (although there had been a French Land Cruiser with a pop-up camper conversion on its back this morning).

It was a bit of a shock when we got back to our hotel room and discovered someone had been through our stuff.  Nothing was taken as we obviously didn’t leave anything valuable in the room, but we definitely feel a bit violated!  You don’t get this sort of trouble in the desert.