Petra - all day long!

 Slathered on the suntan lotion, dressed in immodest clothes - sleeveless shirt - we headed to Petra today.  An amazing ancient city hidden that you can only reach by taking a very narrow passageway through the mountains. (We walked part of this last night in the dark with luminarias lighting the way, but in the light it was like a whole other world).   

We started the day on horseback - you will have to ask to hear the whole story.


This is a Unesco World Heritage Site.  This city was a main passageway for trade caravans coming on the Kings Highway and the Silk Road...the town collected taxes from all passersby and they were the richest city in the world.



The buildings and homes (caves) were all carved right out of (into) the sandstone mountains.


An amazing hike (about 7 miles- but the city went in much further than we did) . In 749 an earthquake hit and it essentially became an forgotten city.  It was discovered in 1812 by a Swiss guy, excavations began in the 1920's, and in 1983 Unesco took control - they relocated all of the people still living in the area to a neighborhood.  Recently they discovered that there was another whole floor beneath the most famous building pictured above (called the Treasury, because they thought there would be treasure in it but it was a tomb.  There are actually about 500 other buildings in the city.
There are markets all throughout the hike - in the olden days they would have traded amber, Frankincense and Myrrh.



Part of the Indiana Jones movie was shot here making it a popular start to visit!
Our guide is pointing to the feet of a man and the remains of a statue of a camel in front of him.

The view up from the Siq - the canyon we walked through.


It was HOT - in the 90's and a tough hike.  We are all getting a bit pooped and are looking forward to heading in the direction of home tomorrow!


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