PETRA, Jordan 9 BC - 40 AD

On 07/07/07, July 7th of last year, they announced the "voted" for NEW seven wonders of the world. I hear that the Egyptian government was so upset about the pyramids not making the cut that Khufu's pyramid now has an honorary "8th" position. Good grief. As if the pyramids could lose their mystique and people would stop going to see them. Anyway, I noticed that PETRA is a seven wonder now. I thought I'd write a sketch about when I went there myself.


Here's the basic skinny on Petra, according to the 7 wonder site:

On the edge of the Arabian Desert, Petra was the glittering capital of the Nabataean empire of King Aretas IV. Masters of water technology, the Nabataeans provided their city with great tunnel constructions and water chambers. A theater, modelled on Greek-Roman prototypes, had space for an audience of 4,000. Today, the Palace Tombs of Petra, with the 42-meter-high Hellenistic temple facade on the El-Deir Monastery, are impressive examples of Middle Eastern culture.

My skinny: Walk first through a skinny canyon and then poof, the place opens up to the famous "treasury" and there's tons to look at. Still an ongoing archaeological site, Petra is a national-parkish place that takes more than an hour to cross on foot. Arches, Capitol Reef, Moab, Goblin Valley--any of those places are similar in weather, red rock, and dust. The difference? Two, really. One, the eye-catching things at Petra are man made, while the Utah's are natural; two, southern Utah has breathtaking things all over the place, and Petra's ONE glory is the treasury. At least the treasury is so awesome that it's the only thing you need to be in awe. You'll walk around for hours see a bunch of ruins that are AMAZING...as far as ruins go (trust me, I've seen a lot of ruins,) and be impressed by a few things, like the odd swirly colored rocks. Also, it's a great place to find those cool souvenir camelbone necklaces. The Nabateans really were "masters of water technology" as the above paragraph mentioned; they even made raingutters to keep water from dripping off the canyon walls and onto the streets.

The heading photo for my blog is a diagonal cut from the "treasury" of Petra--the famous part--and if you look carefully at the urn, you can still see all the bullet holes in it. Some local chaps thought there was gold hidden up there (or so rumor has it,) and so they'd target practice on the urn to see if they could break it. (Insert eye roll here.)

Coolest things about Petra:

1. The scenic pictures, Jordanians included.
2. Camels everywhere.
3. Chariot ruts in the stone streets through the canyon.
4. Playing the Indiana Jones theme on my "iClaudius" iPod and sharing w/friends.
5. Pretty red rock w/color swirls that even geologists don't understand.
6. The chance to be in a canyon again. YES. Comfy, homey feeling there.
7. Talking to Tim about random musicals like Umbrella's of Sherbourg and anything that Sondheim has written, and discussing the contrast between Alfred Hitchcock's black and white and colored movies. This is where I really got to know Tim, who was a very quiet person that I'd tried to talk to before but with no success. Tim has good taste in movies and musicals. In fact, later he let a group of us watch "Sweeney Todd in Concert" that he had on his laptop--I'm now addicted to the "Johanna" song, and familiar with all the music. Thanks, Tim.
8. Everyone had a good time, no mishaps, and we all smiled and laughed.
9. Karey and Mike having to hoist everyone in our group 8ft in the air so we could get into the "Monastery" at the top of Petra that you have to hike 40min to get to. Come to think of it, I owe Karey brownies, actually--I better get on that.
10. Declining to ride a horse because I thought talking to Tim was more rare.
11. The picture-proof that I was THERE! WAH Haaa!
12. Realizing that the sunset-feature on my camera pulled the rosy color from the rock more than the plain. (see example)
13. Finding a grasshopper that would have scared my sister Melissa silly. Freaky! (Don't look Budds. It's black and yellow.)
14. Talking about "colored stones" the way Gadzooks the bear does in the Easter Bunny claymation movie when Sunny tells him that the eggs are really colored stones, so that Gadzooks wont eat them. "What does Gadzooks want with colored stones?"
15. Debating whether or not a rock formation looked like an Easter Island head. See picture below.
16. Wondering whether the Nabateans were related to the Anasazi. Check out the "indian dwellings," you'll know what I mean.
17. Thinking about swirly rocks and have "I'm doodles, and I'm Sw

Okay. Here comes the parade of pictures. I'm sorry there are so many, but at least I'm not writing a ton, eh? Believe it or not, I have more than twice this many. Be glad I'm not posting more.

In the pictures with me: The red head my arm is around is Shannon. We hung together for the first 45 minutes. Lance Evanson and Mikelle Laker are posing by the gorge. Rebecca Redd and I are showing off our Indi hats. Tim is walking ahead of me through the canyon as we were leaving, during our Soundheim discussion. I don't remember any other people other than the Arab dude whose name I sadly do not know. Drum roll...


































P.S. The last picture is what's REALLY inside the door of the treasury. No grail, no knight, and no really really cool "leap of faith" test. But of course not. That was all destroyed in the early 40's when that stupid Nazi chick took the grail past the seal. DUH. This is all that's left. Tragic. ; )