Visiting the Lost City of Petra is one thing that I really want to visit, and it just happened when I did the pilgrimage trip with my family. It’s like the side trip of this pilgrimage trip, so we only spent 2 days and 1 night in Jordan. Is that enough? Of course no! Even we visited Petra in the morning, on the day of our departure from Jordan to Dubai! That’s why it’s only a rush visit to Petra.
Welcome to Petra!
Even though we only spent half day in Petra, but I was and I am grateful that I got the chance to visit this place. The place is so big, that I believe, I could not finish exploring it in one day only. Even I read somewhere, that you need at least four or five days to explore it. Don’t forget, that it was actually a ‘city’.
A quick info about Petra
Petra or is also known as ‘Raqmu’ is a home for Nabataeans from the Arab tribes, and from the map, we can see that it’s located at the center between Red Sea and the Dead Sea. As Jordan’s most-visited tourist attraction, there is no exact information on when it was built, but probably it was built on 312 BC. The city was also half built and half carved, as we can see in many photos of Petra, we can see the carved hill as the façade of a building or tomb.
You can check the location of Petra at Google Maps in here.
Entering The ‘Lost City’
We entered Petra from the visitor center, which was located on the east side of the ‘city’. After we passed the ticketing office, we walked to a plaza with many souvenir shops in this area. Don’t forget to empty your bladder, before you start the walk haha. There are other options available beside entering the city by walking. You can ride a camel, or a horse and a buggy (simply called as ‘delman’ or ‘dokar’). If you decided not to walk, then you need to walk a bit pass the plaza until you see one area with many horses there. Not sure how much money you should pay to them, as I chose to walk.
The Plaza with many souvenir shops
You can ride the horse / camel from here
We need to walk a bit after the horse base to enter The Siq
Looking at the map that is available at one side of the plaza, there are many things-to-see if you are planning to explore the whole Petra area. As we only had a couple of hours during the visit, the best we could see is until the popular spot in Petra, which is called The Treasury or Al-Khazneh. The Treasury is the popular photo that circulates in the internet. But before we headed to The Treasury, we had to walk pass a path that is called as The Siq.
The map of the Lost City (source from here)
The Siq between the two sandstone rock walls
The Siq is a path between the two sandstone rocky walls, which reminds me of Antelope Canyon’s photos in Arizona (No, I haven’t been to Arizona yet). The Siq is truly beautiful. I kept taking pictures to capture the beauty of the bright, resulted from the sun on the upper half of the rocky walls. Well, my photos don’t really capture the beauty of it, but just imagine that it is pretty haha.
Welcome to The Siq
The sandstone rocky walls are quite tall!
The Treasury
However, The Siq was not my main purpose to visit Petra, but to see The Treasury was my main goal! Beside from the photos in the internet, you might remember seeing the façade of this mausoleum and crypt in a movie. Do you remember what movie is it? Yep, you can see The Treasury as one of the scenes for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
Hello … Hello!
Once, I reached the end of The Siq, I smiled when I saw the façade of The Treasury. How amazing the Nabataeans people carved the sandstone rock to make the pillars or details of the face of this Al-Khazneh. And see, how they cut the rock horizontally and vertically as the frame of this beautiful façade. I don’t think it’s possible to enter it as what we saw in the Indiana Jones movie, as there are some guards at the front of it haha. Nevertheless, looking at this piece, no wonder Petra is also included as one of the places from 28 places to see before you die by Smithsonian Magazine.
Look at the detail of the carving at The Treasury of Petra
A Quick run to the last spot
Sad that this was the last stop in Petra, but I managed to make a quick run to next spot, which I am not sure what’s the name of it, but it’s another façade carved from the sandstone. Funny things happened when I ran to this point, that I accidentally drop my small camera bag with the power bank inside it. I didn’t realize that the small bag just slipped from my shoulder when I ran haha. Luckily this passage was not that crowded, and there was only one local Bedouin with his donkey, that found my small bag haha!
Last spot that I visited at Petra
…
Anyway, it would be nice to have a guide that walk with you, as we didn’t have. We just busy took pictures of this one of the New Seven Wonders, but we didn’t really understand what is that. That’s why I made some quick googling for this blog post. Luckily I managed to take a picture of this Obelisk Tomb that I saw between the horse base and The Siq.
A guide is good to have during the visit to Petra
The Obelisk Tomb that I luckily managed to capture on photo
Also don’t forget to bring water and hat during the walk. It was okay when we entered the Siq, as it was still in the morning, but when I walked out, the day turned into a bright and hot day!
There are plenty of things to see in Petra, such as The Theatre and the magnificent Monastery. So I think, it’s just another reason to visit Petra in the future. I always said to my friend, that this is just a preview of Petra for my next visit haha.
See you next time, Petra!
I’ve always wanted to visit Petra, wow, so amazing.
Yeap, I also want to visit this place again someday 😉
Oh man, love this place so much! Although I’ve never been there, it’s still on my bucket list! Definitely will go there one day :)x Beautiful pictures and so many great memories I assume 🙂
Yes, it was one of my bucket list too! Love this place! 🙂
Beautiful pics! As if I were there myself enjoying the amazing Petra
Thanks so much, Evy 🙂
And Petra is beautiful! 😉
Amazing! Ini kalo gak salah sering jadi latar buat film-film holywood ya? How lucky you are!
Yes it is! Indiana Jones, Transformers, and more!!
Here’s the list if you want to know more: http://www.imdb.com/search/title?locations=Petra,%20Jordan
Thimoty ceritamu bikin mupengggg
petra itu bucket list aku banget
Hahaha sama dong kitaaa … Yuk dicoret dr list nya 😉
Keren banget! Referensi liburan anti mainstream!
Adis takdos
travel comedy blogger
Wuihhh, ada Adisss … 😀
Macam datang ke Planet lain ya mas Timo. Aih mupeng
Iya nih … msh banyak yg belummm hiks :-/
wahh petra always in my head. have to go there oneday !!
Yeah! Hopefully soon 🙂