A Visit to the Then Lost City of Petra, Wadi Rum and The Dead Sea.

Blog number 22; Current covid status in the UK: The complete lockdown continues while mass vaccination progresses beyond expectations. 13.02.2021  nguptatravelscrapbook.blogspot.com

A visit to lost city of Petra, Wadi Rum and The Dead Sea

In 2007, Petra was declared one of the New Seven Wonders of the World; preserving its attraction and appeal forever.

Stunning view of the World famous The Treasury

Petra, the great Ancient City that lies half-hidden in the wind-blown landscapes of southern Jordan, is one of the world's most treasured UNESCO World Heritage Sites (1985). Also called The rose city, Petra is a wonderland of an ancient civilization.  For over 500 years, Petra was kind of secluded from the outside world, re-discovered by a Swiss explorer named, Johann Ludwig Burckhardt in 1812. With its stately sandstone cliffs and monumental architecture, Jordan's ancient city of Petra (meaning a rock) has long stoked the enthusiasms of adventurous travellers.

Views of the Treasury

Views of various rock structures at Petra

In Petra, the ancient Eastern traditions blended seamlessly with Hellenistic architecture, dating from around 300 BCE. Nomadic people called the Nabataeans, built this remarkable city of temples and tombs. The enclosed cliffs providing natural protection along the canyon still impresses more than 2000 years after its constructions. From this stony fortification, they were able to control the ancient trade routes of Arabia, establishing a kingdom that became known for its exquisite design and refined elegance. The city has signs of a well-developed civilization with remains of shapes on high rocks including, The Treasury, The monastery, multiple tombs, The amphitheatre, the Citadel and many more. These buildings are miraculously protected, but many others have eroded by floods and by the natural elements. 

Here is my humble experience of The  Petra, Wadi Rum and The Dead Sea 

I guess you would enjoy browsing as much as I had relished penning this blog while remembering all the travel chains and beyond when we visited Petra in February 2019. Petra easily ranks as my favourite place globally, and I doubt that even the hardest to please visitor will find this unique archaeological wonder less than captivating. 

Al-Siq

Al-Siq with the first glimpse of the Treasury

Petra demands more out of her visitors than most ancient monuments. Experiencing the ancient city involves lengthy walks or hikes through hot, dry and rugged terrain (tour buses can't pass through Al-Siq gorge), not to mention the efforts to get first to the famous town Wadi Musa before reaching Petra. Wadi Musa is approached either travelling southwards from Amman, Jordan's capital, or a long way through Negev desert of Israel, from Tel-Aviv or Jerusalem. While working in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, many of my associates were incipiently from Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, and Sudan. I treasure many of them recounting their itineraries while visiting their families by a self-drive road trip from Riyadh, mainly to either Amman or Cairo. Yes, Cairo!

Riyadh to Amman (1500 Kilometres) is a  straight-forward north westward drive taking about 24 hours. Riyadh to Cairo (2500 Kilometres), self-drive road trip involved a drive to Eilat to Aqaba, then car ferry crossing Red sea to Nuweibaa (Egypt), crossing the Sinai Desert and Suez canal onwards to the final destination. Worth? These travel itineraries motivated me to become familiar with several names and positions of various cities, towns, deserts and seas, in this region. 

These anecdotes came alive when we took a road trip by tourist bus, starting from Tel Aviv to Eilat thru Negev desert covering approx three hundred fifty kilometres in about 4 hours or so. On the way, I came across the town signs of famous Beer Sheva, Avdat, Yotvata, Timna National Park, and Aqaba (in Jordan) which is approached after Eilat crossing, if needed. The whole journey saw the immense desert and drylands with surrounding brown mountains interspersed with many agriculture spots where crops were grown under a white tent protecting against the harsh sun with mannered irrigation methods. We saw extensive Israeli development projects, heavy electrical and military installations with military camps all the way along.

Ibex and camels covered these desert lands with highways showing warning signs of camels crossing, frequently. 

We started from Tel Aviv in our cold-weather gear, but the weather warmed up as we reached Eilat and entered Jordan. Eilat is also the north most end of the Red Sea and is a popular Red Sea coral reef resort.

Regional map

I have included a map here for your kind browsing and to experience the local geography. We traversed over into Jordan at Eilat; the border forces were very much in action. Our guides briefed us on how to proceed with immigration, with a Jordanian bus with driver and focus on the other side. 

How did I feel at the core of Petra, The Treasury?

After nearly two hours of a further drive-thru winding roads, we reached Wadi Musa, a newly built township, from where we deboarded the bus to walk now, on to Petra and further. We had over three hours to spend in Petra. In many ways, this is a part of the attraction of experiencing Petra. You have to endeavour to reach Petra's secrets. Like many precious life items, the effort put in makes the rewards more personal, profound and engaging. From the beginning of Petra, where there are illustrated maps, we walked to enjoy ancient water channels, Obelisk Tomb, and many more buildings before entering the Al- Siq that marks Petra's entrance.

The Citadel

One can't miss it! Hewn from rose-red Rock, the Nabatean city of Petra emerges from a picturesque alley with towering walls of sandstone rocks called Al -Siq. The narrow Siq reaches to winding passageway, at times no wider than 6 feet, with red rock faces on either side as high as up to four-story tall buildings and about 1.5 km in to walk. At the end of this eerie mile long passageway, a magical sight emerges through the fissure ahead: The Khazanah or Treasury, a soaring classical Greek-style temple right into the sheer face of a 130-foot cliff on the right side. This building is one of the best-preserved of Petra's wonders. As it is there directly opposite Petra's main entrance, it was meant to be built as if designed to super impress!  There stood the impressive, unforgettable and impressive landmark of Petra - the towering, carved facade of the Treasury out of sheer sandstone. The Treasury's classic front look, the scene that appears infinite times on postcards, photography magazines, travel brochures and leaflets became a reality in front of us. 

We stared at the imposing Treasury, the space in front of it cluttered by hundreds of tourists, hawkers, camels, horses and horse carriages for hire. The scenes resembled walking the Arabian night tales. Abdulla, our guide was very knowledgeable in terms of local history overpowered with acute wits. During approx two hours of his guiding, he would try to relieve our tiredness at each nook and corner of Petra, by repeating a common phrase: Have a break! Have a Kit-Kat!. Pity that none of us was keeping any Kit- Kat! 

The magnificent Tombs

The Monastery

The afternoon desert sun illuminated the stones with the reflected pinks and oranges hues with no photography shots ever to catch the rocks' actual and changing colours. And no number of snapshots were enough, always contending for one more shot and the better one! It was worth going twice that distance, running twice that risk, to see a rose-red temple front carved out of the concrete valley wall and glistening in the opalescence of sun rays, piercing thru. 

At the end of the Siq

As we ventured beyond the Treasury, along a vast plain studded with Petra's many other jewels – a monastery, temples, many tombs, sandstone caves, an amphitheatre and much more. I clocked nearly 20,000 steps in my Fitbit thru hours of walking and hiking the places. I was exhausted. But then there is absolutely no swift way to heed and admire Petra. Surprisingly, most tourists were from China, Hongkong, Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia, as I got into the habit of checking with them or with their guides.  

Abdullah was firm and persistent with tourists while managing to keep us collected, organized and on time. We stretched around at the end of the city area all cluttered with tourists, numerous stalls, book shops and occasional sellers with soft and chilled drinks. We were drained of walking all those steps, that we could not resist taking a horse carriage to take us out to the main street leading to Sandstone restaurant in Wadi Musa for a late buffet lunch. What comfort food it was and my ever favourite too!

The return journey was a bit convoluted as the driver and guide had the tricky job of double-checking the passengers who had diverse terminuses for drop-offs including Wadi Rum, Eilat, Aqaba, Jerusalem, finally Tel Aviv. Our guide Abdullah amazed us further with his pre-recorded commentary, including his jokes that he would play most of the bus time.

The spectre of  Wadi Rum

Wadi Rum

Sun Set in Wadi Rum

The ochre-coloured dunes of Wadi Rum and unusual rock formations create the Wadi Rum desert's incredible landscape immortalised in the 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia. 

Wadi Rum Desert ( pictures are taken from my holiday brochure)

The desert at Wadi Rum – a majestic vista of towering sandstone mountains, natural arches and canyons was another highlight of this trip. We headed to Wadi Rum's desert, one hour drive from Aqaba to drop off a few passengers. 

Home to the nomadic Bedouin people, many travellers, arrange to have an overnight stay in a bedouin tent in the heart of Wadi Rum. There are several bedouin assisted walks and trails, including stargazing opportunities in clear desert skies. Still, when we reached the rust-coloured sands and towering rocks of this Unesco World Heritage Site, we felt, we had landed on another planet. 

Wadi Rum

I managed to take some pictures of Wadi Rum's desert added by a few more that I  obtained from the travel company brochure. The scenes at Wadi Rum reminded me of the numerous desert rides, and camp stays around Riyadh, during our times there.

Dead Sea: 

At  En-Gedi, Israel, matching with a gondola ride in Venice and camel ride at the Great Pyramids of Giza, a dip in the famous buoyant salty body of water, post-dip cover up with famous black mud of the dead sea is a travel cliche like the other two. 

Approaching at En-Gedi, The Dead Sea

The Dead Sea is a favourite tourist destination. Water is so salty you can't sink – only float like a cork. 

Geography of dead Sea:

The Dead Sea at 1035 feet below sea level lies at the Jordan valley's bottom, north of the Great Rift valley. This almost lifeless, arid landscape has a calm and still blue sea surface pierced by the crumbs of floating white -grey and muddy salt rocks floating on the water like pieces of icebergs. The salt rocks at the waterbody floor are hard, sharp and could be slippery and prickly to walk on. The dead sea stretches for almost 80 km, along its base and is about 18 km wide at its broadest point. It could be reached either from Israel along the western border or from Jordan along the eastern boundary. The Israeli side is studded with more upmarket resorts offering natural and hot spring water-based spas, with treatments including facials and baths using mud and rubdowns with local sea salts mixed with herbal oils etc. Apart from the salt, the dead sea is rich in minerals like potash, magnesium and bromine, providing natural therapy for ailments, including skin diseases, arthritis, and respiratory conditions. Besides that, mineral mining yields potash and magnesium, the critical elements for fertilizer used in agriculture. The black mud wrap is supposed to rejuvenate the skin overall, a prevailing luxury treatment.

Vinod at The Dead Sea

The dead sea has been a part of the Holy Land's restoration and beauty regimen since the Queen of Sheba; Cleopatra also is known to have come here and taken to waters for her beauty. These treatments are prevalent, and so are the dead sea beauty products sold everywhere in the region. We covered ourselves in the thick seaside mud then let it dry in the sun before plunging into the seawater, there to float at more than 400 metres (1,300ft) below sea level.

Salt crystallization in The Dead Sea

 Dead Sea Dying: 

Can Israel's Jewel Be Preserved for Future GenerationsBut the Dead Sea is also an unusual ecosystem and a sensitive gauge of the state of the environment is a part of the world where a parched climate and the need to irrigate farms combine to create a permanent shortage of water

 The Dead Sea is a natural wonder that is giving life, but this unique jewel is in danger of drying up. It sits on the Great Rift Valley between Israel and Jordan. Fed by fresh water from the Jordan River and mineral springs, it's one of the saltiest lakes globally – so salted no fish or vegetation can survive in nominated as one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The water, mud and atmosphere have healing properties, but all this could disappear.

The Dead Sea is dropping by five to eight feet a year due to intense evaporation of seawater. The high concentration of salt has nothing to do with the sea being below the sea level. Instead, it comes about because of the high evaporation rate that led to salts' build-up over the years. The Jordan River flows into it, but the water level is further dropping as river water is diverted away for irrigation purposes. If anything, deciding what should be done about the water level is more complex - a vast scientific and political issue. Geologists point out that the water status in the past has probably been both higher and lower than it is now.

"What could save the Dead Sea is pouring water into the Dead Sea." 

 

I intend to continue writing the net blog on My trip to Jerusalem and Bethlehem.