Friday, December 9, 2011

Jordan Visit - Part II: Hiking Petra

Our second day in Jordan was devoted to Petra - we hiked for over 5 hours and still only saw a small part of the ancient city. Petra is the capital city of the Nabataeans and a religious center, tribal burial grounds, and the focus of a bi-annual pilgrimage.  The Nabataeans are a tribe of people descended from Nabioth, the eldest son of Ishmael, the son of Abraham. They were a merchant people who lived in Arabia, initially using camel caravans for trade and later ships called dhows with which they sailed the world carrying on a worldwide trade in exotic items. (info courtesy of nabataea.net)
   
The city is sprawling and there are hiking trails throughout, but the main attractions are the Treasury and the Monastery, two breathtaking structures carved into the rock. As you'll see from the photos, the place is simply amazing and we could have hiked around for days... well, except for the fact that my legs were about to fall off! :)
















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