Petra (By: Luke)

 I couldn't believe it! We were going to see one of the 7 Modern Wonders of the World!  Petra is an ancient city built at earliest 300 B.C.E. It is considered special because of it's big rocks shaped and cut. It is most well known for the Treasury, a huge carving into the rocks. Petra has been an UNESCO Heritage Site since 1985. With that information Iyad (our tour guide) took us into the famous city. We learned that the holes in the rocks that looked like small caves were not houses but burial sites. It was very interesting learning about the history of this place. We walked through the siq (a shaft) which was like a rock hallway with no roof. We kept on walking as Iyad showed us the narrowest part in the siq. Jacob and I spread our arms out and were almost able to touch hands and both walls at the same time. 

   At one point Iyad told us to look at this rock and tell us the colors of red that you see. I thought it was a little weird until we learned that right behind us was the Treasury! I was flabbergasted. I had seen some pictures of the Treasury but in the moment, I was in awe of it. It is 40 feet high by 30 feet long and jaw-dropping.

 

    We walked some more and started our steep descent to the Monastery. After the first 50 out of 837 steps I ran the whole way up. The Monastery also left me speechless. Except for the designs on it, it was exactly like the Treasury but a little bit bigger. We climbed to a place called The View where we got some really good pictures of the Monastery.



While we were walking we met a lady selling a book called Married To A Bedouin. The Bedouins lived here in Petra for 600 years. They lived in caves and didn't use electricity or other modern conveniences. She was from New Zealand but met and married a Bedouin when she came to Petra for a visit 30 years ago. Her husband passed away many years ago but the Bedouins still accept her as part of their community. We took a pit stop at a place Iyad called The Loo with a View. It is called this because the bathroom was built into a cave.

    We then visited a place called the Urn Tomb where we hiked up a lot of stairs. We came to a place up there where we could explore the burial sites. We spent an hour doing that and finally departed into the siq.












We got to take a few more pictures in front of the Treasury and ventured back down the road we had walked up earlier. We then slowly walked back to our hotel. I had a lot to write about in my journal that day.

 Petra was simply amazing and I highly suggest going there if you can.