Petra

Leaving Amman at an early hour we headed south across the desert towards Petra. It was a three hour jaunt but we had one rest stop at, you guessed it, a shop selling all kinds of clothing, rugs, vases, souvenirs etc. Here I am outside the shop while Bob is taking pictures of the cars and gas station.
Our first view of Petra:

The site of Petra was inhabited during ancient times including Paleolithic and Neolithic periods. The biblical Edomites occupied the area about 1200 b.c. Petra achieved its greatest glory under the Nabateans, who were an ancient people who originally came from Northeast Arabia. The Romans conquered the area about 100 a.d. and added the roman touch. The Christians, Byzantines and Crusaders followed before Petra was deserted.

During our time in Jordan we had an armed tourist policeman on our bus with it. He was there supposedly to make sure the tourist sites were available during the times they were supposed to be. They had tourist police in Petra, some of them riding horses around the site.

There are dams at various places along the trail to control flash floods. The following picture shows one of the dams which forces the rain water into cisterns.

The walk into Petra is 2 miles. For the first mile a horse and cart could be rented for $30. and Bob insisted I take a cart. I think I would have rather have walked as it was a bumpy ride.

There was a huge tomb which is misnamed the treasury. People originally though there was a buried treasure there, but it was not so.

When we had rain in Israel, they had rain in Petra and part of the trail washed out. There was some heavy equipment to help fix the trail. Some of the natives had jobs moving rocks by hand.

Everyone didn't merit huge tombs. Here are tombs of the commoners.

Below the roman influence is shown in the forum.

Now we see the modern period.