That last photo shows the ancient water system - water would flow through that gutter into the city through the Siq.
Petra was the capital of the Nabataean kingdom that reached from Egypt up to Judaea. They worshiped gods by the names of Dushara and Allat, and others. Their gods were worshipped through burning incense, making libation offerings, and making animal sacrifices at open-air altars (such as Petra's high place), or in temples. The Nabataean elite were buried in rock-cut tombs with carved facades.
They city was found in 1812 by a Swiss explorer named Johann Ludwig. He had heard of the lost city of Petra, and learned Arabic and studied Islam and began to search for it. He "disguised" himself as a pilgrim, seeking to make a sacrifice at the tomb of Aaron. He hired a guide to lead him to the tomb through a narrow rock valley. He saw the treasures and tombs that we see today. His journal described the now well-known tombs cut in the rock. Apparently the locals became suspicious of his motives and cut his tour short. He was allowed to sacrifice his goat, and then led out of the city.
Iyad had us put our heads down, we walked forward...and suddenly we looked up and saw the famous treasury!! It was amazing. We were the first ones there. He told us about how people thought it was full of treasure, but it turned out to just be a tomb of Aretas.
We were told to hurry, even though we had about 8 hours. We ran up (literally) to the "High Place of Sacrifice". It was about 700 steps up up up. When we got to the top it was literally just this huge slick rock and it was SO WINDY!! I was so scared! I am terrified of heights. Rebecca and I just grabbed each other and walked slowly across trying not to blow off.
We explored around the valley a bit more, we ran up to the area of the Royal Tombs. There are seriously vendors EVERYWHERE selling anything you could imagine. Even on tops of these crazy hikes on the cliffs...it is insane.
Next was the hike up to the Monastery. This is one of the largest monuments in Petra (47m wide by 51m high). It was reused as a Christian chapel at some point, which is how it got its name as the Monastery.
We had lunch (inside the park) (more bread pudding) and did some more exploring. A lot of kids rode camels for like $20, but I just walked through the valley by all the shops back to the treasury.
We left the main park in Petra at 3:00 and headed to "little Petra" - another slot canyon with more beautifully carved tombs. It was getting SUPER windy and sand was blowing into our eyes and stinging our arms. We saw some pretty purple frescoes of grapes and then we all ran up these narrow stairs out to another lookout even though our professors were telling us to HURRY. We felt so free today.
We loaded up on the busses and had a long 3.5 hour drive back to Amman.
more please
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