Petra
We crossed the border from Israel into Jordan and split a taxi with an Israeli couple who were also headed to Petra. We arrived rather quickly because our taxi driver topped out at 120 miles per hour on the highway despite our constant pleading to slow down. We made our way to a guesthouse and found that they had an all-you-can-eat buffet dinner every night for five dollars! It was quite social and we met a lot of other travelers, including a couple from Ireland who is traveling the world for two years. They made us look like wimps! The next day we all went to the ruins together in the back of a pickup truck.
Petra is the premier archeological site in Jordan. The entrance is a long, narrow, and tall slot canyon formed of orange and red rock. After walking through this canyon for about 20 minutes, we finally caught a glimpse of a huge building carved into the rock in an open area ahead. This is the exact place where Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was filmed. However, in our journey the Nazis were not chasing us and there were no booby traps. But we did find even more buildings carved into the rock after that first one. We spent two days exploring all of them and climbing to the top of various cliff-top viewpoints. Some of them overlooked the rift valley and the Dead Sea, while others offered views of the sunset casting orange light onto different ruins.
The entire area was built thousands of years ago by local inhabitants seeking a safe place to build their city, but was later abandoned. We spent two full days in the ruins and ate some great middle eastern food at the hostel each night. Eventually we made our way to Amman and stayed there for a few days just as Ramadan began. Since everything closes during the day for this very important Islamic holiday, it was perfect timing for us to catch a flight out of the country. Next stop: Ethiopia.
