When we arrived in Wadi Musa, we parked at our hotel and headed straight to the Petra gates. Jordan offers something called the "Jordan Pass," which basically allows you to avoid having to pay for a tourist visa and gives you access to many tourist sites, including, most significantly, Petra. We had purchased the version of the Jordan Pass which gives you Petra entrance for two days, so our plan for this afternoon was to see what we could and be back tomorrow morning.
There was no line up at this time of day and soon we were through the gates and walking down a dirt road towards the Siq, which is the famous narrow gorge that leads into Petra. This is a couple kilometre walk and, while you do have to dodge the Bedouin trying to get you onto their horses and mules, the scenery is quite something.
There are also Nabataean graves along the route, including the most impressive Bab as-Siq Triclinium.
While it is a nice walk down to the Siq, the Siq itself is super cool! To say we had it to ourselves would be a slight exaggeration, but not much of one!
Immediately when you emerge from the Siq you are in front of Petra's most famous spot, the Treasury.
There are some trails you can climb here to get a view of the Treasury from above, but instead we carried on, past the theatre . . .
. . . the royal tombs, which are up on the cliff . . .
. . . down the colonnaded street . . .
. . . up to the Great Temple . . .
. . . and eventually to the basin, which is where the road meets a wadi and elevation is at its lowest. Something that caught both of us by surprise is how big Petra is. We had already walked four kilometres by the time we reached the basin, and other than a brief stop at the Treasury had pretty much been walking straight from the time we entered the site. We also found the lack of crowds remarkable--obviously in my photos I intentionally avoid capturing people if I can help it, but you can see how few other people there were based on how frequently there is no one, or almost no one in the photo. I attribute the lack of people to the season (winter is the low season, and weather can be rainy and/or cold, although it is probably obvious that we had a gorgeous day); the time of day (presumably many people enter relatively early and by mid-afternoon are on their way out); and, sadly, the conflict in Israel which has clearly impacted the tourist industry in Jordan writ large.
From the basin, the final major spot in Petra is a climb upwards, first by trail and later by something like 800 steps, to the Monastery. This is a serious climb, and probably took a good 45 minutes, or nearly that, from the basin. Again, the scenery is epic.
And, once you reach it, the Monastery is also incredible! Here we did nearly have it to ourselves. In fact, although we had been harassed much of the way by Bedouin souvenir sellers, we could not even find anyone by the Monastery to sell us tea!
It was now 15:30, and we had been told Petra closes at 17:00, but there was no way we could make it back to the entrance by then. Anyway, there did not seem to be any urgency, so we relaxed at the Monastery, and then descended. We stopped for a fresh pomegranate/orange juice squeezed for us by this lady who let me take her picture.
You pay a lot for the juice, but it is tasty and you cannot beat the view!
We traveled back the way we came, appreciating all the sights again, only this time from the opposite direction and with even fewer people. We stopped again at the Treasury briefly and then carried on, exiting shortly after 17:00 without issue.
The Petra Moon is a really great hotel and was excellent value. The room was lovely, and they gave us a complimentary plate of fresh fruit, everything in the mini bar, and a bag of Dead Sea skin care products! However, they do not serve alcohol. So, later in the evening, we went next door to the Movenpick and sat in their incredible lounge and enjoyed a drink. The drinks at the Wadi Musa Movenpick cost even more than freshly squeezed juice in Petra, but it is worth the premium, in my opinion, just to enjoy the remarkable lounge and service (the server gave us a complimentary plate of cakes from the buffet to eat with our drinks!).
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