Petra

The third day started with 6 hours in Petra. You may not know how much time we spend at each site usually, but it’s 2 hours max. Soooo…. You can imagine how incredible this site was and all there was to see. Just for background information, this was a Nabotean city of the first century mainly, and absolutely incredible. I’ve never seen anything like this place. Again, words will not do justice, pictures come closer, but you really just need to go there yourself. (Sorry!) But I’ll do the best I can to try to explain, and hopefully I can put pictures to accompany this post, but no promises. Again, you might just have to wait for facebook pictures. It’s one of the 7 man-made wonders of the world. So pretty big deal.

Walking up to the main entrance, on both sides there are intricately designed, stunning carvings into the rock. The Naboteans were incredible rock carvers. They would carve these things into the mountain face themselves. So it’s not like they took it down and carved it and put it somewhere. They carved the rock face itself. How they knew where and how to cut to get these visual affects while hanging down and having little knowledge of where they were respectively, I have no clue. But they were master craftsmen.

Their entrance to the city was ridiculous. It’s called the Siq. It’s basically a continuous canyon that is 1 kilometer long and 500 feet high- winding and turning in a narrow passage the whole time. I don’t know if you know how long a kilometer is, but it’s no small distance. This thing was incredible. Walking in the canyon, there is an aqueduct running on the sides that used to carry rainwater to the city. Carved into the rock face and over and in the aqueduct were again intricate, splendid designs- the most famous is a man leading a camel caravan. It’s faded, but it’s there. Wild.

The Siq opened up into a courtyard area with an indescrible structure called the Treasury. This was in one of the Indian Jones movies, but it’s been a while for me so I don’t know which one, but that’s what I hear. The Treasury was just a super huge, elaborate designed, amazing building/carving/tomb- I don’t know what to call it. Here words truly can’t describe it and you need to see a picture. This thing was massive and so detailed in the design and carving.

The rest of the site included more of the same- carvings I can’t describe in words and majestic views. It was a lot of climbing to high places, but again, some sites that I will probably never experience again in majesty and grandeur. God is big, I am small, but he still cares for me and orders and sustains the universe. I don’t understand and it’s a simple thing that everyone repeats, but I’m constantly shocked that he’s shown regard for me.

Blown Away by mercies,

Sos