Petra (Selah)

On Tuesday, May 18, we left Aquaba, known as King Solomon’s port, for a 2-hour bus ride on the Jordanian highway, also called the King’s Highway. We saw many Bedouins in the fields with their sheep and goats. Just before the entrance of Petra, we saw the site of Aaron’s burial on top of Mount Hor.

Petra is a mountain fortress, that was inhabited by the Edomites (descendants of Esau) and then the Nabateans (descendants of a son of Ishmael) until the Romans drove them out. Later the Bedouins lived there, but it is no longer inhabited. Hidden between the mountains, Petra is only accessible by walking. We walked down a hill with our guide, to a narrow gorge, the entrance between two huge rock cliffs (reminded us of Needles Highway in the Black Hills), only about 12 feet wide in some place and 150-250 feet high. After walking downhill for about a 1 ½ mile we were asked to form two lines, side by side, put our hands on the shoulders of the person in front of us and close our eyes. We then were told to walk forward, trusting our leader. (Our line had a great leader – Jim!) When the guide told us to open our eyes we were amazed to see the beautiful 60 foot sandstone carvings of the Treasury. Going down farther into Petra we saw many of the burial caves that the Nabateans had carved into the sides of the cliffs. We also saw the 6000 seat stadium they had built. The rock was basically red, striated with lots of different colors. After walking DOWNHILL into the city (about 2 miles) with our guide, we walked the same route back to our bus – totally UPHILL of course.

One more thing about Petra: for the Indiana Jones fans – Petra is where some of the scenes from “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” were shot.

Our next stop was in the Valley of Moses, where we saw the place where Moses struck the rock instead of speak to it as God commanded (Numbers 20). The Israelites got water, but because of his disobedience Moses was denied entrance to the promised land.

We continued our travels on the King’s Highway to Ammon. As we arrived in Ammon for the night, we entered a busy, commercialized city. Population is 2 million. Much of the signage is in English. Many women drive Jeeps, the Jordanian “family van.” We saw Pizza Hut, Burger King, Toyota as well as many other restaurants and commercial signs that reminded us of home. After commenting to each other about how the traffic in Jordan is much different than Cairo (an organized road system with signage and even police cars) our bus driver turned the corner to our hotel, and instead of being an inch from the vehicles on either side, there was probably only ¼ inch to spare on each side! But no scratches.

We saw a variety of terrain in Jordan today – barren desert, mountains, areas with sparse vegetation, and then some fields with planted crops. One more thing: We learned today that the camel is known as the hybrid (high-bred) limousine of the desert!