Da de da daah, Da de dah. You add the tune. Anyone who has seen Indiana Jones in "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (that would be everybody) can stop reading this blog now. Unless, of course, you want to see Peggy and George on camels.
Today we visited Petra, Jordan, the eighth wonder of the ancient world, and one of the seven wonders of the modern world. Petra was built more than 2200 years ago by the Nabataeans, an Arab tribe and one of the most gifted people in history. Petra, in the middle of the Arabian desert, sits above a large underground lake, and has lots of water. It also sits at the crossroads of the old overland trading routes that ran East-West (The Silk Road from China and India to Europe) and also North-South (from Africa to Europe). The Nabataeans were excellent hydraulic engineers and businessmen. They built a complex system to collect, store, pump, and distribute the water to numerous oases throughouut the region and then charged the caravans for water and supplies. They even invented a system to pump water up hill without power, using a venturi principle.
The Nabataeans buried their dead in caves dug into the sides of sandstone cliffs. The more important the person, the more elaborate the cave and it's exterior carvings. The most elaborate of all is one called "The Treasury". The Nabataeans were wealthy people and it is believed they buried gold and jewels with their dead, at least with the important ones. Thus, the early raiders and grave robbers expected to find treasure in the graves, thus gave the name to the most elaborate one. However, they were too late. By the time the European raiders got there, everything was long gone, taken by Arab Bedouin tribes who threw out the bones and used the caves as dwellings, especially in the winter. Now, it is a huge tourist attraction, but absolutely stunning.
To get to the Treasury you enter what appears to be a large cave (first picture below) which then opens up into a mile-long natural rift in the high sandstone rocky cliffs, making it easy to defend. Wimps could travel by horse drawn carriages or ride on a donkey, but we walked all the way their and back, taking about 4 hours total, or about the same as 18 holes. We're in training for our return.
On the way, we say rock structures that looked like "Nimo" as in "Finding Nimo", and an elephant with George under its trunk..
Finally, we came to The Teasury, which is the most elaborate cave of all. Remember, what you see is the face of a sandstone cliff carved 2200 years ago to look like the front of a temple. It opens into a burial room, which you are no longer allowed to enter. Appaently, they carved without scaffolds, carving from the top down, always standing on a ledge that they would carve out from under their feet. The engineering feat is amazing when you see that the building is perfectly symmetrical side to side, and in carving you get no "do overs". If you chip off too much rock, you can't put it back.
In additon to The Treasury, there are lots of others caves, some simple and some elaborate.
There was a huge theatre carved out of the rock, where they held religious events.
You can just picture Indiana Jones riding his horse through that rift
.
We could not come to the Arabian Desert without riding on a camel. We got our chance here.
Isn't he cute, the camel that is.
And now back to the buses, and the traffic jams of modern Petra. What a contrast.
Boy are we beat. And that is just half our day. More to come.
P&G
Today we visited Petra, Jordan, the eighth wonder of the ancient world, and one of the seven wonders of the modern world. Petra was built more than 2200 years ago by the Nabataeans, an Arab tribe and one of the most gifted people in history. Petra, in the middle of the Arabian desert, sits above a large underground lake, and has lots of water. It also sits at the crossroads of the old overland trading routes that ran East-West (The Silk Road from China and India to Europe) and also North-South (from Africa to Europe). The Nabataeans were excellent hydraulic engineers and businessmen. They built a complex system to collect, store, pump, and distribute the water to numerous oases throughouut the region and then charged the caravans for water and supplies. They even invented a system to pump water up hill without power, using a venturi principle.
The Nabataeans buried their dead in caves dug into the sides of sandstone cliffs. The more important the person, the more elaborate the cave and it's exterior carvings. The most elaborate of all is one called "The Treasury". The Nabataeans were wealthy people and it is believed they buried gold and jewels with their dead, at least with the important ones. Thus, the early raiders and grave robbers expected to find treasure in the graves, thus gave the name to the most elaborate one. However, they were too late. By the time the European raiders got there, everything was long gone, taken by Arab Bedouin tribes who threw out the bones and used the caves as dwellings, especially in the winter. Now, it is a huge tourist attraction, but absolutely stunning.
To get to the Treasury you enter what appears to be a large cave (first picture below) which then opens up into a mile-long natural rift in the high sandstone rocky cliffs, making it easy to defend. Wimps could travel by horse drawn carriages or ride on a donkey, but we walked all the way their and back, taking about 4 hours total, or about the same as 18 holes. We're in training for our return.
On the way, we say rock structures that looked like "Nimo" as in "Finding Nimo", and an elephant with George under its trunk..
Finally, we came to The Teasury, which is the most elaborate cave of all. Remember, what you see is the face of a sandstone cliff carved 2200 years ago to look like the front of a temple. It opens into a burial room, which you are no longer allowed to enter. Appaently, they carved without scaffolds, carving from the top down, always standing on a ledge that they would carve out from under their feet. The engineering feat is amazing when you see that the building is perfectly symmetrical side to side, and in carving you get no "do overs". If you chip off too much rock, you can't put it back.
In additon to The Treasury, there are lots of others caves, some simple and some elaborate.
There was a huge theatre carved out of the rock, where they held religious events.
You can just picture Indiana Jones riding his horse through that rift
.
We could not come to the Arabian Desert without riding on a camel. We got our chance here.
Isn't he cute, the camel that is.
And now back to the buses, and the traffic jams of modern Petra. What a contrast.
Boy are we beat. And that is just half our day. More to come.
P&G
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