Jordan - Part 2

Monday 10 November
We had an early breakfast and arrived at the gates of Petra at 7am. Mazen our tour leader wasn't authorised to act as a tour guide at Petra so Ahmed, a local guide, spent the morning showing us round the site. As well as our admission to the site and Ahmed's services we also had to pay for a horse ride for the kilometre or so from the main gate to the entrance to the Siq, the narrow rock canyon which leads to the city itself.

Fortunately for me, we didn't have to take the ride we had paid for and I didn't have to pay any extra money to be excused, although I would have felt it was worth it. Although we were listening intently to Ahmed as he told us of the history of Petra, the moment we were really waiting for was our first sight of Al Khazneh "The Treasury" the tomb carved into the rock, which every visitor to Petra knows.

We hadn't realised quite how big the whole Petra site is, with many tombs and temples, and an amphitheatre. Ahmed's guided tour gave us an overview of the main areas as well as giving us an interesting summary of the city's history. By late morning his tour was over, so after a stop for tea Mazen took us up the track with 800 stairs which leads to the monastery at the top of a small mountain above Petra. Along this way were more tombs and looking back there were breathtaking views. All along the route there were other walkers as well as donkeys for hire for those who didn't want to walk up.

At the top we saw the monastery and more breathtaking views. We had more of the sweet mint tea which we had grown to enjoy before retracing our steps back to the main Petra site for lunch.

We spent all afternoon there, too, visiting an old Byzantine church with amazing mosaic floors as well as looking at more of the tombs.

The site used to be inhabited by Bedouin who have now been relocated to a nearby village. Many of these make a living from horse and donkey rides or selling refreshments or jewellery. The children take part in this, leading donkeys or selling mineral rocks.

One jewellery trader called Suleman told us that he was born in one of the caves in Petra. His English was really good, and he could do a perfect Cockney accent. I asked him where he had learned it and he said he just copied the tourists. I would have been less surprised if he had told me that he'd worked in Brick Lane market. He was a very thoughtful and philosophical man he appreciated the income that tourism brought him, but felt that he had lost something with the passing of the simpler life of the past. "If you get more, you need more" he said. He liked to spend his weekends out in the desert with his children.

On the other hand he was using some of his money to send one of his sons to private school for a better education than the village school could provide, and I think he would be happy if at least some of his children were to have professional careers.

That evening Petra was open for one of the "Petra by Night" sessions which they hold. Sue and I assembled at the gates with hundreds of other people. We were given a fairly stern briefing from a local official before we set off, almost in procession. There was to be no talking and no flash photography until we arrived at Al Khazneh, and we were not to walk in large groups. There was one concession to humour - "married couples can walk together of course, and for the singles, good luck!"

So we set off on our "school outing" and straight away some people were talking and using flash photography. The way was lit with candles in paper bags, and the square in front of Al Khazneh was full of candles. We all sat on mats on the ground and listened to local musicians while drinking sweet sage tea before we had a brief speech of welcome. The walk back seemed more natural with people just chatting in small groups. If the organisers had wanted a more solemn air on the approach then maybe they should have had a more formal procession led by musicians or singers.