Petra

Day One: Petra Day Wednesday 23 May 2018

Our fearless leader, Dr Jim Anderson, is a wonderful man of God who loves the Lord and trusts him deeply.  Dr. A. has forgotten more about the Bible, the languages of the Bible, Biblical history, secular history, aviation, humor and people and their families than we will ever know.  Dr. A has forgotten almost nothing.   He is an amazing person.  He does have one slight, insignificant fault.  It is not anything to detract from his multitude of celestial qualities, but I would be remiss if I did not divulge this information.  Dr. A has, and I say this professionally, a mild to moderate sadistic streak in him.

Evidence of this is seen in the fact that he tells us we can sleep late tomorrow, after the long plane travel half way around the world, and he would call to wake us up at 5:30 AM.  We laughed. He did not.  The day begins with a computer call at 5:28 and Dr. A calling at 5:30.  His voice sounds cheery, but I suspect torture is about to ensue.

Breakfast is at 6:15 and it is the first time I get to really talk to the other members of our traveling band of fellow Christian pilgrims.  I have a certificate designating me as a pilgrim so don’t giggle at that choice of words.   I will introduce you to some of these wonderful folks later.  Breakfast reminds me more of breakfast buffets in the orient.  There were some western items such as scrambled eggs and beef bacon (we are in Muslim and Jewish cultures so we saw no pork of any kind during our trip).  Most of the foods at breakfast were savory such as cold cuts and lots of salad vegetables, cheeses and fruit.  I got plenty to eat and was ready to tackle day one of our adventures.

We boarded out 40-passenger bus with our 21 passengers, which gave us plenty of spreading out room, and headed south out of Amman, Jordan.  Amman is the capital and largest city in the Kingdom of Jordan. Like it’s Neighbour to the south and west Saudi Arabia, Jordan is an absolute monarchy.  Unlike Saudi, Jordan has no oil so it is considerably less well off financially. 

Leaving the city center where our hotel Regency Palace is located the city has the look of many cities.   We pass McDonalds, KFC, Dominos pizza.  As we got a bit out of the center of the city the look took on the look of Ecuador or Mexico with small store fronts with living quarters on the second floor and metal sliding down doors to lock it up at night.

The farther out of the city it got the more it began to take on dessert look, which is not surprising since 75% of Jordan is desert.  It looked remarkably like West Texas when I was a kid, before they irrigated everything.   There began to be more Bedouin tribes (a group of families).   They live in open fields in pole tents some with sides others appeared to be open.   They had sheep and goats in pens or out in the near by fields with a shepherd or goatherd depending on what they were raising.  There were also the not uncommon camel.

On what, you may rightfully ask, are these animals grazing? I would argue that they must be eating stones because, well, that is all that I could see.  But when encouraged to look carefully I could detect by some of the rocks itty bitty tinny sprigs of something green.  That is what they ate apparently.

We traveled part of the time on the Desert Highway which goes through the desert and intersects with the King’s Highway.  The King’s Highway is not noticeably different from the Desert Highway accept that in the recent and ancient past Kings used to take this high across the region.

The trip continued across very repetitive desert scenes until we approached an Incline and Dr. A had us close our eyes and not peek until he counted to 10.  We dutifully complied.  The countdown began 7, 8, 9, 9 and a half, 10!  Open your eyes.   Wow, the Wadi Mojiib! 

Shepard in the Wadi

Road we would take into the wadi.

Elvin admiring the Wadi

The Wadi

Wadi is an Arabic word that means “a great dry ditch in the middle of the dessert or down the side of the mountain which at some point in the past had water that dug the ditch”.   Wadi Mojiib is referred to as the Grand Canyon of Jordan.  I have been to THE Grand Canyon and can definitively say “I don’t think so.”  It is still very impressive.  The river, that was evidently much more consistent in days of yore before people began to irrigate the desert, was known as the River Arnon in the Bible.

Numbers 21

 13 They set out from there and camped alongside the Arnon, which is in the wilderness extending into Amorite territory. The Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites.

Deuteronomy 3

8 So at that time we took from these two kings of the Amorites the territory east of the Jordan, from the Arnon Gorge as far as Mount Hermon.

After a brief picture taking opportunity we continued to Petra.  This is where Dr. A’s sadistic tendencies really come to the fore.  Petra is a Greek word that means “There are really cool building carved into the Canyon walls after you walk down this really steep and insanely rocky path – which you will have to climb back up after the temperature reaches 130 degrees.”

To be fair there were burros and horse drawn carts you could ride down and up the canyon.   The cost supposedly was included in the admission price but watching folks get their bodies shaken nearly apart from the rocky road I decided to walk.   The ride was not actually free in that a tip was demanded by the folks in charge of the burros

Petra is spectacular. Words cannot describe it.  I hope my pictures begin to convey something of the grandeur.  Smithsonian Magazine has named Petra as one of the 28 places to see before you die.  Wanting there not to be any misunderstanding I confirmed, before going, that Petra was not one of the 28 places to see and THEN you die.

In the Bible the area is referred to as Edom and the prophet Obadiah foretold the down fall of this great fortress city:

Obadiah 3 The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rocks and make your home on the heights, you who say to yourself, ‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’

Extra-biblical history tells us that Romans caused the ultimate fall of the Edomiites when they found a way to cut off the water supply from the city.

This is the part of the trail that looks like a gentle stroll.  Don’t be fooled.  The grade and conditions will soon take a dastardly turn.  I don’t have a picture of the portion of the trail that reenacts the Bataan Death March because I was gasping for breath the whole time and well the detailing the last moments of my life were not foremost in my thoughts.

This creature stood mocking my breathing.

You walk around a bend in the crevice and up a head you see the treasury. This would have been an extraordinary sight when the façade was on the building.

The Treasury was the down town for the Edomites and the center of trade.  It is still the center for tourist trade. 

This is the setting that was used in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.  Harrison Ford and Sean Connery had long since gone home.

Petra is far more than the Treasury building.  It was a massive city that just happened to be in a canyon.  Thousands of people lived here.

No city of old is complete without an amphitheater.

It was spectacular to see in the present day I cannot imagine how stunning it would have been when it was new.  Despite how captivating the site was, it soon came time to make the long steep trek back up the path.   About half way back the carts being pulled by the burros were beginning to look as if they might not have killed me or that if they had killed me it might not have been too great a price to pay to have avoided the tortured trek.   But with some breathers in the shade when the sun was not directly over the narrow canyon I survived.   As I write this some 10 days after the insanely hot trek I can say “Check! One of the 28 sights completed, only 19 more places to go.”  I may have to live longer than I planned to complete the list.  Yes, I would recommend that you visit Petra but I will wait for you in the bus.