Petra - Day Eleven & Twelve

We arrived at the border crossing to Jordan around 4pm. After our group went through passport control we boarded our bus and made our way to the largest city in Jordan, Aqaba. We stayed at a beautiful 5 star hotel on the Red Sea. From the shore of the Red Sea we could see over into Egypt. Jordan borders Syria on the north, Iraq on the east, Saudia Arabia on the south, and Israel on the west. It's population is more than 5 million mostly Muslim inhabitants.

We had an early start to our day. The drive to Petra was a little over 2 hours away. Hidden deep in the mountainous canyons of Jordan is Petra, the Rose-red city of the Nabatean's. Petra is one of the 7 wonders of the Ancient World. On our drive to Petra we drove into the desert what appeared to be in the middle of nowhere. Suddenly houses were dotted here and there, and then the town adjacent to this ancient wonder appeared.

Petra can only be reached on foot along long, narrow, and winding ravines. We walked between these ravines for about 2kms. Without any warning, we took one more step and within our view was the infamous Treasury (as seen in the bottom right photo)

Petra is also the location where the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was filmed.

Prior to my visit to Petra, I had a vision in my mind as to what to expect. I had no idea how vast the ancient city really was. We must have walked about 10 to 12 kms that day. The whole city contains temples, amphitheaters, tombs and homes carved out of soft pink sandstone rock. When you visit Petra, you'll see this desert place, where rain only comes seasonally. It is a place large enough to house many thousands. In fact, it it's day the city would have had 60,000 to 70,000 inhabitants.

Biblically speaking, Why did we visit Petra? Some believe that Petra is the wilderness prepared by God to protect "the Woman" during the Great Tribulation that is written in Revelation 12. Despite the varying opinions, Petra is an amazing piece of history. For me it shows how possible it is for a civilization and us for that matter, to live on the land that is given to us. Our need to possess all that we do seems to give us security. But the Nabatean's lived on little and yet their city grew to an enormous size and is still standing to this day.