The Bruner Family Journey: Petra: Jordan's Gem And One Of The World's Wonders

In the Siq

Petra has to be seen to be believed. It's a spectacular city of ancient tombs carved out of sheer red rock, amidst gorgeous mountain scenery, with a mind-boggling size and scale. Tourists enter the city through an incredibly steep and narrow "Siq" (a natural geological feature formed from a deep split in the sandstone rock) that towers several hundred feet high and stretches nearly a mile long. Once you exit the Siq, there are literally hundreds of historic monuments spread across a vast, sprawling site - where the only means of transportation are horses, donkeys, camels, or one's own feet. The massive rock-cut facades of Petra's two most famous buildings - the Treasury and the Monastery - are awe-inspiring in their own right. The intricately carved and wonderfully preserved Treasury is about 140 feet high and 100 feet wide. Less elaborate but no less impressive, the Monastery is about 160 feet high and 150 feet wide. The wide range of architectural styles is equally striking. The city's founders (the Nabataeans) were pragmatists, adopting different cultural influences to facilitate their commercial trading interests and relationships. The city thus exhibits Classical (Greco-Roman), Egyptian, Mesopotamian and local architectural elements, creating a unique but cosmopolitan feel.

It's not surprising that Petra is Jordan's most-visited tourist attraction and is routinely included on listings of the ancient wonders of the world. But it is surprising that Petra was not known to the modern Western world until 1812, when it was discovered by Swiss traveler Johann Ludwig Burckhardt. He was apparently on his way to Egypt when he was lured by local tales of a lost city in the mountains. That was one lucky dude.

In his award-winning poem of 1845, Englishman John William Burgon, who had heard descriptions of the site but had never actually seen it, extolled Petra as follows:

It seems no work of Man's creative hand, by labour wrought as wavering fancy planned;

But from the rock as if by magic grown, eternal, silent, beautiful, alone!

Not virgin-white like that old Doric shrine, where erst Athena held her rites divine;

Not saintly-grey, like many a minster fane, that crowns the hill and consecrates the plain;

But rose-red as if the blush of dawn, that first beheld them were not yet withdrawn;

The hues of youth upon a brow of woe, which Man deemed old two thousand years ago,

Match me such marvel save in Eastern clime, a rose-red city half as old as time.

Jeremy and Talia in front of the Treasury

For those who prefer contemporary cinema to 19th century English poetry, the Treasury at Petra was depicted in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade as a secret temple housing the Holy Grail. It's actually not that much of a stretch to picture Petra as a magical lost city bearing hidden treasures of immeasurable value. And the legend lives on today at Petra at the "Indiana Jones Snack Shop," where you can ponder the sacred rites of the Nabataeans over an ice cold Coca-Cola.
But let's move on to the facts. The precise date of Petra's founding is not definitively known. Petra was built by the Nabataeans sometime from the 6th to the 3rd centuries BCE. The Nabataeans were an ancient Arab nomadic tribe who originally came from the Arabian Peninsula and settled in what is now southern Jordan. They achieved great success in controlling the region's trade routes, levying tolls and protecting caravans carrying Arabian frankincense and myrrh, Indian spices and silks, and African ivory and animal hides. With profits from their business, they were able to establish a powerful commercial kingdom that stretched to Damascus and included parts of the Sinai and Negev deserts.

Eden, Jeremy & Talia looking small in front of the Monastery

They established Petra as their capital. Enclosed by towering rocks, the city was naturally fortified. Its location was ideal for controlling commercial routes to the west to Gaza, to the north to Basra and Damascus, to the south to the Red Sea , and across the desert to the east to the Persian Gulf. Petra was also blessed with a perennial water source, and the Nabataeans showed great skill in harnessing the erratic water supply (read: flash floods) with an elaborate system of dams, cisterns and water conduits. The Nabataeans waged wars and used diplomacy to preserve their power and independence, but in 106 CE their kingdom was annexed to the Roman Empire. Nabataean civilization nevertheless continued to thrive, although eventually the city lost its sources of wealth - and then faded into the rocks - as trading routes shifted; as Christianity replaced pagan religions, which lessened the demand for frankincense; and as a massive earthquake struck in the 6th century. Other than a few passing visitors here and there (the Crusaders built an outpost in the 12th century and the Mamluks passed through in the 13th century), for hundreds of years Petra was nothing more than a local legend and an object of curiosity.

Our tour started out with a short horse ride from the visitor's center to the entrance of the Siq (which was prompted by plaintive cries in unison of "I wanna ride a horsie!"). This area offers some impressive sights of its own, such as the Obelisk Tomb, which beautifully combines Egyptian and Greco-Roman features. We then walked through the Siq, marveling at the geology that formed it and filled with anticipation of the monuments that lied ahead. Toward the end of the Siq, you begin to catch tantalizing glimpses of the Treasury's elaborate facade. Then, the Siq opens up onto an ancient plaza filled with awe-struck tourists gazing up at the Treasury and with vendors selling souvenirs, camel rides, and transport onward by donkey. The Treasury was built sometime from 100 BCE to 200 CE as a tomb for a Nabataean king, but the building gets its name from the legend that an Egyptian Pharaoh hid his treasure here.

"Help, I'm melting!"

After the Treasury, there are countless tombs, temples, and cave dwellings to fill up hours (if not days) of sightseeing. Many of the facades look like a hallucination, as if they are melting into dripping patterns of colored rock. There are many attributes of a Roman-style city, including a large amphitheater, a long colonnaded street, and a grand terraced temple with stately arches and columns. There's also a Byzantine church with beautifully preserved mosaics. And there's the Qasr Al-Bint, a large freestanding Nabataean Temple built in the 1st century BCE.

After all these sights, the terrain climbs steeply up to the Monastery, which was built in the 3rd century BCE as a tomb for a Nabataean king, but which was later used as a Christian chapel (hence its name). We let the kids ride up to the Monastery on donkeys (prompted by plaintive cries in unison of "I wanna ride a donkey!"), but Eden and I walked all the way up. (The tourist brochure says there are 800 steps, but we didn't count.) We then hiked up a small hill in front of the Monastery, to gaze down upon the mighty edifice and out at the dramatic mountain scenery. It's precisely this combination of ancient history and stunning geology that makes Petra such a fascinating destination.

View of Jeremy from the High Place of Sacrifice

It was an exhausting but utterly fulfilling day. We decided to come back the next day to see one more sight - the High Place of Sacrifice, which the Nabataeans used for sacred rituals and which sits atop Petra with dizzying 360-degree views. This time, we all walked up, despite the repeated offers for a "good price" for a donkey ride "for the baby." (For the record, Talia is five years old and is already a seasoned hiker - she's certainly no "baby"!) On our way down it started to rain, so we decided to high-tail it back through the Siq to the entrance to get a taxi back to our hotel. But alas we were too late to avoid the river of muddy water racing down through the narrow Siq. We did our best to enjoy our long, ankle-deep walk through the frigid brown water. After warming up with a jacuzzi back at the hotel, Jeremy said that walking through the "Siq River" was both his favorite, and his least favorite, part of Petra!

The "Siq River"

Not being able to help myself (it's actually a medical condition), I had to see one more sight, so I woke up early on the third morning (alone) to visit Siq Al Barid, also known as "Little Petra." It's about 8 kilometers north of "Big" Petra and is a kind of miniature version of its bigger and more famous brother. There's a short, narrow Siq, some impressive rock-cut Nabataean tombs, and some beautiful views of the surrounding mountains.

As we left Petra, I couldn't help but think that since we'll certainly be making another trip to Israel sometime soon, we'll have to combine our trip with another visit to Jordan.

More photographs from our time in Petra are presented below. It's an incredible place, so there are quite a few pictures. While you shouldn't feel obliged to look at all of them, you should definitely plan on visiting Petra yourself and taking your own pictures.