The Monastery at Petra
Petra, Jordan
November 2, 2008
Petra, Jordan
November 2, 2008
“A rose-red city half as old as time” – John William Burgon
Anyone who watched Indiana Jones emerge on camelback from a narrow sandstone gorge to appear in front of a massive rock-carved facade will recognize Petra’s most famous landmark – Al-Khazneh or The Treasury. Until I saw photos of a friend’s visit to Jordan a few years ago I had no idea the site was real. Somehow previously believing it was the work of a special effects artist’s romantic imagination only fueled my fascination with the place. It was the one site in Jordan I considered unmissable.
The steep admission price and inevitable rip-off of a tourist village surrounding the site didn’t dampen my enthusiasm. Instead I was pleasantly surprised to discover there was far more to the place than I realized which made escaping the crowds a simple matter of detouring off the well-beaten “main road”.
The details on who originally inhabited this region are sketchy but it was clearly the Nabateans who put it on the map. From here, they were able to capitalize on the ancient caravan trade routes and in the 1st and 2nd centuries BC the city flourished only to decline later under Roman rule when revised trade routes and a devastating earthquake took their toll.
Considering the technology of the era, these enormous caves and ornate facades are a mind-blowing human achievement. After the long walk down the dark, narrow gorge nicknamed ‘Al Siq’ (‘the shaft’) the sunlit face of the massively tall ‘Treasury’ is literally breathtaking. Just the doorway is higher than a typical modern home. The inside is simple and unadorned but further reinforces the tremendous scale. On the other side of the ‘city centre’ a steep climb leads to the equally impressive ‘Monastery’ (pictured above) in an equally dramatic location cut out off the rock high above the city below. Staring up at these colossal structures it’s obvious they were built to evoke awe, if not fear, from whomever caught site of them. One can only imagine the tales told for centuries of the city of wonder hidden in the desert. Even today it has to be seen to be believed.
The rest of the area is somewhat overshadowed by the spectacle of primary sites. That’s a shame since all around are wonderful temples, tombs and caves nestled in corners or perched atop hillsides. They provide a rare (and arguable) example of human presence enhancing nature’s beauty. If the price of admission (and accomodation) was more reasonable I could easily have spent a few days letting my imagination conjour up scenes of a thriving Nabatean civilization or the abandoned ancient marvel that must have inspired the poet who wrote the lines above.
