Desert or Dessert? - Ho Hum In Wadi Rum

Back when I was in public elementary school, my teacher tried to help my fellow students and I learn how to differentiate between the spelling for 'desert' and 'dessert'.  The difference is in the number of 's'," she said. "Everybody loves desserts, therefore you want one MORE 's'." But nobody wants to be stuck in a desert, so you want one LESS 's'." As flawed as that logic seems to me now, it made perfect sense to me at the time.  I have yet to eat sand after dinner.

We had originally planned to visit Petra for a second day because so many guide books and Internet posts recommend 2-3 days there.  Really?  One day of sore feet was good enough for us.  Since we had no other plans, Bashar recommended a trip to a popular site called Wadi Rum (Wadi means 'valley' and Rum is an alcoholic beverage usually made with sugarcane).  In the limited research I did on Jordan, I found that many people consider it the second best tourist site in the country.  Some folks, including Bashar, enjoy it even more than Petra.  We had earlier decided to forego a visit there because of lack of time (most tourists camp there overnight) and lack of interest (we didn't enjoy our trip to the Thar Desert last year).

"Would there be any walking involved?" I whined.  Our guide replied, "No, we can either rent a jeep or a camel--". "No $@&@! camels," I protested.  Why compound sore feet with an aching ass.

After checking out of the hotel, we proceeded south on the King's Highway for 1.5 hours until we reached the Jabal Rum camp.  Our Bedouin driver pulled up in a filthy Nissan pickup truck.  If this were back home in Tennessee, I'd say he had just gone muddin'.  The wife and I piled in the cabin and headed out into the desert with him.  There were no roads, but a route was marked by red arrows painted onto rocks on the ground.  He would stop (or I would ask him to stop) in order for us to take some photographs.  He spoke no English and I spoke no Arabic, making our conversation just a series of gesticulations and grunts.

The highlights in Wadi Rum are the unusual rock formations.

The desert wasn't completely devoid of vegetation.  There were actually many small bushes and shrubs that dotted the landscape.

We also noticed a phallic-looking plant poking out of the sand.

This plant can be crushed to make red dye.

Our guide showed us more methods of collecting and storing water in the desert.

That cistern is likely a cesspool of cholera.

In the unlikely event that it rains, this canal will help collect the water.

There are also some interesting rock wall writings, some Nabateans and others Thamudic. These drawings depict men on camels hunting horned animals such as antelopes.

All Greek to me

Since antelopes cannot thrive in today's desert, perhaps Jordan was more green and lush in the past?

Camels certainly thrived in this region in that era.

Simply put, the desert was deserted. For the first hour, there was not another soul in sight.  Then, as we pulled up to a large rock bridge, lo and behold, we saw a group of Indian people filming a Bollywood production.  An hour later we passed a lonely Bedouin herding his camels over some sand dunes. And that was about it for people during our three hours in the desert.

They weren't doing of the typical Bollywood dancing, so I'm sure the movie will suck

$@*&! camel.

We sat around for awhile letting the fine sand sift between our fingers and toes while the unrestrained wind whipped around us.  Then we got bored.  Really bored.  For me, sand without a large body of water nearby is merely glass waiting to happen.  The solitude of the desert is only relaxing for a short while. I'm not the type who enjoys sitting around and doing nothing.  I can do that in front of my TV at home.  I don't need to travel halfway around the world to accomplish that.

 

Unable to communicate with our driver that we were okay heading back early, we waited the full three hours and returned to the Jabal Rum camp.  From there, it was a three hour drive to the airport near Amman.  Although there are plenty of restaurants in the terminal where we could have eaten dinner, we eschewed them in favor of the sweets in the duty free shops.

Sadly, I have no clue what the desserts are called. All I know is that I would rather sit there stuffing my face with them rather than spend more time in any desert.  I guess my teacher was right after all.

On the EgyptAir flight from Amman to Cairo, we were the only non Middle-Eastern passengers.  I'm sure those long-bearded men wearing robes and Arabic scarves probably would have freaked out many ignorant passengers on American flights.  But then again, I wonder if those Arabic passengers were nervously thinking, "Are those two Asian people gonna hijack the plane?"

A Crusade to Petra - A Visit to the Rose Red Ruins of the Ancient City

Years ago when I was in high school, I received a postcard from a summer camp friend that showed a massive building facade carved into the side of a mountain.  I immediately recognized it as the resting place of the Holy Grail from Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade, which had been released a few years before.  I wondered why my friend went on vacation to see a movie set.  Okay, I was pretty ignorant back then, and had never heard of Petra.  Once I learned that the facade was really the Treasury building for this ancient city, my interest was piqued.  I made it my mission to see Petra someday.

This rocky area of Jordan had likely been occupied since early Biblical times by the Edomites.  But most of what we know about Petra began around 312 B.C. when Arabic nomads known as the Nabateans conquered the area.  Petra became a major stop for the Spice Road, and the inhabitants prospered through control of this trade.  The Nabateans were responsible for most of the incredible monuments carved into the sandstone rocks.  However, the Romans eventually conquered the Nabateans in 106 AD and added some of their typical free-standing Roman buildings.  Eventually, control passed to the Byzantines who subsequently built several Christian churches.  With their subsequent fall to the Islamic Conquest in the 8th century and the decline of the trade caravans, Petra ceased to exist as a major city.  Eventually, it became lost to the Western historical record for a thousand years.  In 1812, a Swiss explorer named Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, rediscovered Petra for the rest of the world.  He had to disguise himself as a sheikh as non-Muslims were prohibited from entering the area.  At that time, Petra was occupied by Bedouins who resided there until the 1960's when the Jordanian government relocated them all to a nearby town.

Just in case I didn't emphasis it in my previous entries, it has been freezing here.  Although Petra opens at 6 AM, Bashar recommended we hold off on starting until around 9 AM so the air could warm up a bit.  Even then, it was still freezing because deserts don't have trees to block huge blasts of cold air.  Conveniently, the ticket office for Petra was directly across the street from our hotel.  We hired a local guide who had graduated from tourism school only a few months before.  He seemed like a nice guy, but I could tell he was still inexperienced and reticent.  He told us that since it is the off season for tourism, he only guides one tour a week.  

Included in the cost of the entry ticket is a horseback ride to the beginning of the site.  We had heard warnings that the people who handle the horses will hassle you pretty hard for tips of 10-15 JD (~ $20).  We figured we needed the exercise, so we decided to walk.  Besides, I'm pretty cheap.  This ended up being the coldest part of the day as we were hammered by freezing crosswinds.

The 1 km walk to the Al-Siq can be traversed by horse or foot.

Four obelisks adorn this tomb.

The wind died down once we reached the shelter of the Al-Siq, a narrow canyon flanked by cliff walls up to 650 feet high.  Some parts of the pathway still remain paved with stones dating back to the Romans.  It has taken thousands of years for water to chisel this canyon out of the mountain.

Irrigation canals were carved into the rock
walls to store and carry rainwater to the city.

 A flash flood in the Al-Siq killed 12 French tourists in 1963.
Several dams have since been built to divert the water away.

Unfortunately, this same effect has slowly eroded several of the monuments and statues within the Al-Siq.

Many shrines have been carved into the rock walls...

...so that the Nabateans could worship idols of their gods.

People toes

Camel toes

We dodged several horse-drawn carriages ferrying older tourists.  We were shocked to see one horse suddenly collapse and lay motionless.  Several tense minutes passed in which we were sure it was dead.   Finally, the horse got up and was retired for the day.  I'm no veterinarian so I couldn't tell how well those animals were kept.  But, I was glad that we decided to walk.

One more victim for the glue factory

As we approached the end of the 2 km long Al-Siq, we caught a glimpse of a statue peeking around the edges of the canyon's walls.

We emerged into a clearing with the enormous facade of the Treasury building towering over us.  With the rays of the morning sun illuminating the rose-colored sandstone, the Treasury has become the quintessential structure that people identify with Petra.

Inexplicably, we also noticed some visitors already leaving as we were arriving.  I suspect that some people only visit the Treasury building and then leave without seeing the remainder of the large city.  What a waste coming all the way to this exotic location.

Our guide told us that the name is a misnomer--no treasures were stored there.  There was an ancient myth that the Exodus pharaoh chased Moses and the Israelites all the way here.  Encumbered by his vast wealth, he then stored it in the giant urn carved at the top of the building.  Of course, historically this couldn't have happened.  But it didn't stop Bedouins from shooting the urn hoping that gold would spill out.  Instead, the building was likely used as a tomb, possibly for a Nabatean king.  In the past few years, excavations were carried out discovering several more rooms below the structure, but these are inaccessible due to a covered grate.  The decorations on this building demonstrate the many influences that other cultures had on the Nabateans.

In the center is a badly eroded statue of the Egyptian goddess Isis.

The two equestrian statues at the bottom of the Treasury represent the mythical
Graeco-Roman twins, Castor and Pollux, the patron gods of sailors and travelers.

After enjoying a warm tea and taking the obligatory pictures of the Treasury, we continued on towards the rest of the city.  We passed a large open-air theater initially built by the Nabateans and improved by the Romans.

Although the performances may be in 3D, this theater still has no IMAX compatibility.

The site is teeming with smaller caves that were used as tombs in ancient times.

The interior of one of the caves

The reason that Jordan lost the Six Day War against Israel
was that their army still fought with spears and shields. 

These more ornately-carved structures have been labelled as 'Royal Tombs.'

However, there is no evidence that there were used specifically by kings.

We eventually arrived at a long colonnaded street that dated to the Roman occupation.  Sadly, most of it is in complete ruins.  Paving stones still cover a good portion of the road, but most of the columns have fully collapsed and lay to the side.  More excavation and reconstruction are needed to restore it to the semblance of the structure it once was.

Remaining columns

Remnants of the Roman road

A bench built from extra stones.  It didn't look very stable.

It's tough to guard an entryway
when there are no walls.

Ruins of 'The Great Temple' that has been excavated by Brown University.

On a hill overlooking the colonnaded street are the excavated ruins of Byzantine era churches.  Their mosaic floors are still well preserved and beautiful works of art.  We reached the end of the colonnaded street where we saw the Qasr Al-Bint, a three-roomed temple dedicated to the chief Nabatean god Dushara.  Although it was damaged by an earthquake in 363 AD, it is the only free-standing stone building still remaining in the city.

The Qasr Al-Bint

Amazingly, the arch at the entryway still
stands, albeit it looks like a gentle zephyr
could cause it to collapse.

At that point, we ditched our guide and decided to do the hike to the Al Deir which is also dubbed the 'Monastery' for some unknown reason.  The path comprises 800 steps that wind up the mountain.

The pathway to the Monastery...

...wound up the windy canyon.

The majority of tourists to Petra tend to forego this journey.  A small handful (mainly older folks) hire donkeys to carry them up.  The rest of the people who made the trek tended to be younger and in decent shape.  That being said, it wasn't really difficult, just somewhat tedious.  At the top it was sometimes worse because of the occasional wind-tunnel effect.  Harsh sand and small pebbles were whipped up leading to an unwanted exfoliating facial.

As we rounded a corner at the top of the mountain, an enormous structure greeted us.  Although not as ornately carved or decorated as the Treasury, the Monastery’s dwarfs it in sheer size.  The doorway alone stands 8 meters high.  We ended up hiking further up the mountain to get a better vantage point to view and photograph the massive structure.  Altogether, it took less than 2 hours to make the round trip to see the Monastery.

The locals were smart enough to use donkeys.

It would have been nice if the Nabateans had built the Monastery 800 steps closer to the rest of the city.

Further up the mountain is an immense room
with a small shrine sullied with modern graffiti.

A restaurant lies empty on top of the mountain.
Location, location, location.

Along the way down, some of the locals manned stands selling cheap trinkets.  At least they had the sense to wait until we were heading back down the mountain before they asked us to view their wares.  The Bedouins, for the most part, were polite.  They didn't harass us too badly like we had expected.  Usually, a simple 'no thanks' was all it took and they left us alone.  Several of them also had their children with them.  The Wife noticed a cute little boy and girl.  She gave the boy an apple and motioned him to share with his younger sister.  He shook his head 'no'.  So when the little girl came over, The Wife tried to hand her a bag of potato chips.  Seeing the superiority of the salty snack, the boy handed the apple to his sister and grabbed the chips.

It's good to see that all cultures appreciate junk food over healthy snacks.

This house comes with a two car garage.

We finished up with the rest of the excavated areas at Petra.  Astonishingly, experts believe that only 15% of the site has been excavated so far.  The whole experience at Petra took a total of about 6 hours.  Did we see every nook and cranny there?  Probably not, but we were satisfied that we got our fill of this exotic location.  Sadly though, we never did find the room containing the Holy Grail.  It's probably all for the best because I’m sure that I would have chosen...poorly.