in the middle east

After our adventure in the desert wonderland of Wadi Rum, we hopped on a bus to Petra, about 2hrs North. Petra is, obviously, quite famous; in fact it may become one of the new 7 wonders of the world. It was made most famous by appearing as a set for an Indiana Jones film, but other than that, I really didn't know too much about the place or its history. Petra was a royal burial city for the ancient culture of the Nabateans. This was a people group of Arabian descent (from the Southern desert that is today Saudi Arabia) that came to build a large kingdom in this part of the mountainous desert SE of the Dead Sea. They reached the peak of their culture in the 2nd cent. BC to the 1st cent. AD, when they were taken over by the Romans. Petra was built to house the tombs of their royal leaders, as well as the upper class who could afford such tombs. There are literally hundreds of these elaborate tombs here. But what makes Petra spectacular to visit is that all of these structures were carved right out of the soft sandstone mountain sides. The rock is really unique because you can see the layers and swirls of different colored sand that piled up and made the mountains; thus the buildings are a swirls of red, brown, blue, and purple rock. It is the unique combination of natural beauty and Nabatean massive-style monumental architecture that make Petra such a breathtaking place to visit. We spent a day and half just walking around this massive place. After our stay there we hopped on another bus 2.5hrs further North to the city of Amman, the capital (and largest) city of Jordan. After cruising around the city for a day, we woke up the next morning to board our flight to Cairo. But that's for the next blog. For Petra and Amman, Click Here.