Rejuvenated after soaking in the Dead Sea minerals, we started our 3hour drive to Petra. The landscapes in Jordan are amazing and makes for very scenic drives. The route to Petra was a hilly one with some steep inclines with temperature dropping drastically from 21 degrees at Dead Sea to 8 degrees at Petra! Google Maps pretty much worked the entire route and took us to our hotel - Petra Sky Inn.
We reached the hotel around 2/3pm and rested for a bit and then set off towards the Petra visitor centre. The route to the visitor is extremely steep with inclination of 70 degrees and some blind turns - quite a tough drive!
We had planned to be in Petra from a Wednesday to a Friday and I was glad we had done that. Petra by Night is a tour organised by the Petra visitor centre which allows you to visit the Treasury at Petra at night; Lit by 100s of candles! This tour happens only on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. You can simply turn up at the Petra visitor centre and buy the ticket for 17JD. There are 2 tours - 7pm and 8pm. This isn’t covered by the Jordan Pass btw. However you do need the Jordan Pass to be shown at entry/ a valid Petra ticket. With that we set off walking into Petra in darkness, with some candles lighting the path all the way to the Treasury. As it came into visibility the view was stunning! You sit there and listen to some local musicians play some music and it’s simply magical!
We started early the next day to explore Petra in the day. Petra served as a major trade route towards Arabia and Egypt. In AD 555 it was destroyed by an earthquake only to be re-discovered by a Swiss explorer thousands of years later. Carved completely out of sandstone the Treasury is the highlight of Petra - making it a Wonder of the World.
Mind you, one needs to walk a LOT in Petra. Its a 45 mins walk from the Petra visitor centre to the Treasury itself. There are many walking trails, well defined, and you can spend 2 days discovering this lost city.
As you walk through the Siq to catch the first glimpse of the Treasury, the architecture, the detailing, the size, the colour leaves you awestruck! The entire landscape of rocks leading up to the Treasury are also so dramatic. After a few pics of the treasury we climbed up the Rock opposite it to get some elevated, but direct views of it too.
We then continued on the main trail, checked out the Royal Tombs and a few other sites enroute. The weather was very cold and windy and we were quite exhausted and started our journey back to the hotel by afternoon. It takes about 1hr to walk back to the visitor centre as well! You do have options of riding a horse cart but that comes at a cost.
On Day 2 we started a little later in the morning with a plan to walk all the way up to the Monastery - the hard Al der trail. This is a tough one with a number of stairs to climb, all at an inclination. But the views of the entire valley is beautiful and makes the climb worth it. It also takes about 2 hrs to descend from the Monastery and get to the visitor centre. Note that!
It easily takes atleast 2 days to explore Petra, but its completely worth braving the cold windy weather to catch a glimpse of this piece of history. Petra is extremely touristy and approx 1mn tourists have visited Petra in 2019! Whoa!
Feeling content, we ended our Petra visit with a number of photos and happiness of seeing this work of art.
Next up.. the desert of Wadi Rum!
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