I wrote my site report on Petra but I'll keep it brief here. If you are in desparate need of a cure for insomnia, I can send you my paper. This is the main siq (pronounced "seek") leading into the valley. It's pretty narrow and the walls are high, so it's easy to defend.
The Romans only succeeded in taking over by poisoning the water. If you look towards the bottom of the left wall, you can see where the water would have flowed.
This is the treasury, the most famous building on site. The ruler who commissioned it incorporated styles from other countries so people would feel more at home when they came for trade. Indiana Jones rediscovered this site in the 1940s on his search for the Holy Grail.
This is Jen on a camel. She looks pretty happy for how tight she's holding on.
Here are a bunch of tombs. The Nabateans who lived here were big on death. Some researchers think they settled in this area because the sandstone was easy to carve into tombs.
Romans like to have theaters wherever they go. The Nabateans built the original theater but the Romans cut away some of the structures in the back to make room for more seating.
The valley is full of all sorts of buildings carved into the sandstone. I didn't have time to see these ones but I think one of them is a church.
This is part of the trail up to the Monastery. See the road in the back? We walked in on that. The trail had something like 800 steps, so not all tourists make the trip. It took us an hour to go up and 20 minutes to get down.
This is the Monastery at the top of the trail. As you can see it's a lot bigger than the Treasury.You used to be able to climb up behind it but now the trail is blocked and there are "No Climbing" signs all around it.
Here's what it looks like from the base.
In conclusion, even though we were only there for a few hours, I would highly recommend Petra to anyone traveling to Jordan.
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