We spent the day at one of the seven wonders of the world.

Hard to know which to gaze at with more wonder – the awe-inspiring rock tombs, temples, fountains and deity shrines of the talented Nabateans and the conquerors cum co- habitors the Romans from 106 AD to the earthquake of 749, or the exquisite creativity of the rain and sun on the huge cliffs of sandstone .

 

 

 

 

The walk, 2.5 miles down through the gorge past the famous Treasury  

still to yield most of its secrets from under the sand, past the road of facades, the carved shrines to Dusharah, the chief god of the Nabateans, the carved camels and traders, the royal tombs, the fountain, the shopfronts, the three temples and the main Roman street and amphitheatre, the water channels for irrigation and drinking water cut right along the way, was hard but mind-blowing. We tramped along Roman limestone pavements, risking our balance as we gazed up the sandstone heights on either side to see yet another treasure – the djinn tombs, and the crow stepped tombs to allow the dead occupants to climb up and down from heaven.

So many styles had influenced the Nabateans – Byzantine, Greek, Ottoman and ultimately Roman – strange that such a resourceful people who had travelled from their Mesopotamian origins before settling in Petra, and changed from agriculture to guarding trade routes to becoming expert chisellers of stone, that the 749 earthquake should have left so little evidence of them as people – so few bones, but perhaps more to find beneath the flooded sand deposits.

The five mile round trip was a trial for most of us as the temperature climbed to the high eighties. Some bravely walked the full distance there and back. Others, including me, took advantage of the donkeys, horses, carts and camels

offered persistently along the way for dinar or dollars . My horse and cart was truly bone-shaking. I was torn between concern for our own safety and concern for the bony horse who valiantly pulled us at varying speeds from the Treasury halfway point to the visitor centre at the top on the final leg of our journey.

Mint tea then return to the hotel and gentle exercise in the pool soon revived our flagging spirits. But we are pretty keen on a less physical day tomorrow as we move back north in Jordan in the early morning to change coaches, guides and countries. The promise of a return to holy Christian sites is attractive, despite the wonders of rose-coloured Petra. We need some food for the spirit again.