Holy Land – Day 12 Petra

Petra is an ancient city dating from the third century BC. After a short but restful night, we are anxious to see this World Heritage Site and one of the declared New Seven Wonders of the World. The Nabateans prospered in the trade of frankensense, myrhh and spices. This was their capital. They had advanced and ingenious water systems which enabled them to move around the dessert area and control access to water for caravans. They also extracted bitumen and salt from the Dead Sea and exported it to Egypt for mummification.

You have seen Petra in the Indiana Jones movies like the Last Crusade in 1989. We walk down a slowly descending gravel path. There are mountains in view. The way narrows and we enter a canyon. There are horse drawn buggies speeding by. Some people ride horses or donkies. The cobble stones give way to a smoother Roman like road. The steep rock walls becomes pink in colur. We snap pic after pic and suddenly there it – the Tomb of King Aretas IV. King Aretas is mentioned in 2 Cor‎ 11:13. He ruled a large empire between Egypt and Persia just skirting the east and southern end of the Dead sea.

They were annexed by the Roman Empire in 106 CE. In 324 they become part of the Byzantine Empire. In 363‎ a major earthquake crumbles some of their greatest buildings. Another earthquake in 551 knocks out their civilization for good.

We hear snipets of conversations. Ancient eartquakes opened up fissures here. Water gushed down over millions of years ago. It carved out the deep canyon more than 200 feet deep. We continue and climb many stairs to the Urn Tomb. We can see the top of the 8000 seat ampitheatre. We turn back.‎ We get back to the bus after a 3 hr hike.

Today, phosphate and potash are mined and exported. Jordan has great leadership I King Abdulla II tries to keep Jordan as neutral as possible. They set a very good example in this turbulent area – live and let live. It is a beautiful country – Yosef our guide was right. We have seen and learned a lot here.
‎We get to our hotel in Amman at 7:30. There is a large wedding party going on in the lobby. The contrast with Petra could not be greater.