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Horse-drawn carriage meanders through the Sik.
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I didn’t know what a Siq was until my Right To Play colleagues and I discovered Petra: the sandstone, ancient city that was once a main trade thoroughfare between Damascus and Arabia, and is now Jordan’s greatest tourism attraction.
The Siq is a 1.2 kilometer walkway between continuous rock walls that are meters and meters above (sorry, I’m terrible at estimating length or height by sight). The Siq is dazzling and breathtaking alone, but once the Treasury – the first of the stone carved elements of Petra – peeks out from the gap between the Siq walls, you know this adventure has just begun.
Besides the ominpresence of vendors selling cheap silver jewelry, camel rides, head scarves and more, Petra is most striking to me for its untouched and quiet landscape. Despite being discovered by a Swiss hiker in the 1920s (I think), Petra may face crowds by day but compared to other wonders of the world, offers a fairly quiet tourist excursion. It’s a combination of ruins spread over miles and linked by a trodden and sandy path. People, carriages, donkeys, camels and a few stray cats are the pedestrians at Petra. There are no tour buses or other vehicles honking away in traffic jams here (thankfully).
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| The Monastery ruins at Petra. |
The Holy Grail of this visit is making it to the Monastery. Only an hour’s walk and 800 steps stood between the Siq and the Monastery (right). I took my time from the group and fell back a bit since the hiker in me enjoys the solitude that broad, open landscapes like these offer. Especially when traveling in a work group of Board members, staff and supporters, I find it essential to carve out those windows where one can just inhale fully and be off the clock for a bit. However I privately triumphed over my coming in THIRD place – third to an Olympic champion Norwegian speed skater and zealous Canadian traveler – in the group when we got to the Monastery. I had even stopped here and there to feed the shopper-ego in me who loves meandering markets, fingering semi-precious jewelry and bargaining over pennies for authentic goods. Slow and steady DOES win the race. (Not that I’m competitive or anything)
When we departed right after sunset, Petra’s quiet multiplied, making the place that much more majestic despite the clunking of camel hoofs on the stone pathways as we made our way to the exit. That pounding ride, difficult on the thighs even if you did grow up riding horses, was motivated by the fact that camels (apparently) have terrible night vision according to our guide.
Incidentally, our guide and all the desert guys in turbans in this southern part of Jordan (so south, heading towards the more conservative region of Jordan and to the Saudi border) tend to fancy a coal blackening effect around the eyes. When I asked about the ritual, I received the answer that they outline their eyes with coal “just because it looks good.” Somehow despite a language gap, I’m guessing this can’t possibly be the only reason. But I was galloping on a camel in yoga pants with a heavy camera slamming against me in a satchel at dusk through a gap between rock walls, so I didn’t ask any follow up questions.
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| Camel ride out of Petra and before night fell. |
We drew night to a close with a four-hour drive back to Amman in the blazing darkness. It’s been a long time since I’ve scampered around a landscape that is so undeveloped. Jordan’s desert is just harsh and dry enough to keep rampant agriculture or development at bay; I heard on this trip that Jordan imports around 80 percent of its food and the barren landscape makes me believe it. Before arriving at the highway leading to Amman, one of my fellow travelers (a bright, hilarious guy about my Dad’s age) mentioned that you could see the highway for over 30 minutes away simply because of the flat, open landscape. Wild and wonderful and this is NOT West Virginia.
