Petra: A Day Of Wonder

The intrigue of Petra starts way before you visit, the story of its creation and existence matched by the romance of its re-discovery from its true status as a Lost City. Built by the Nabataean people around 2,600 years ago, this city of 30,000 people, built into and from the surrounding mountains and outcrops, must have been one of the World’s most thriving metropoles of those ancient times. 

A city full of major sites built into the rock faces, colossal facades and tomb structures; so-called “high places”, places of worship and sacrifice way above the ground; entire streets of frontages hewn into the vertical rock; ornate carvings on impossibly grand scales adorning the face of what turn to be cave interiors. 

Just as romantic is the story of its discoverer, Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, who came across the place in 1812, having heard talk amongst Bedouins of an ancient city hidden from the world. Indeed, the Bedouins had purposefully kept their secret so effectively that Burckhardt knew as he rode through that he was the first Westerner ever to lay eyes on this sacred city. His story is a remarkable one which we won’t repeat here, but it is mind blowing just to imagine what discovery of a lost, and secret, city, would feel like, let alone a city built with such unique splendour.

Unlike so many other major sites, you can’t see Petra from afar, you don’t pass it by road, it doesn’t sit high on a hill. Despite it now being quite such a major tourist attraction, it is still pleasingly hidden, tucked between mountains and reached only either by walking through The Siq (just as the Nabateans would have done), or by climbing over the mountains.

Our route today is to trek around and over the mountains, passing many sights before clambering along a high ridge, where suddenly and completely unexpectedly the magnificent facade of The Treasury is below us across the rift. It’s an awesome view.

Ahmad’s hiking route is terrific, altogether a 6-hour wonderful hike across difficult terrain and over lofty peaks, ticking all of our hiking boxes even without the once in a lifetime experience of seeing Petra. We visit hidden temples, ancient cave dwellings, those sacred high places, before descending into Petra proper, past the amphitheatre built by the Nabateans and enhanced by the Romans, past a host of other wonders, before arriving at the foot of The Treasury, soaking up that amazing view. A view now known to the world despite being hidden, or lost, for centuries. Incredible.

Unlike most others, we leave via The Siq rather than arrive that way, but as we do so, it is so easy to embrace the awe of that approach way to this hidden sacred city: an approach as full of anticipation for the hordes of visitors today as it was for those ancient people. 

Yes, tourism and commercialisation have arrived here, but it is very easy to walk past that and just be absorbed by the magic of this truly incredible place, one of The New Seven Wonders Of The World. 

Ahmad is going to cook for us tonight but not in the conventional way, he will cook over an open fire at his cave.  We drive in convoy, through Petra and out into the hills, the incredible view across Wadi Musa ever present. The drive takes us on bumpy dirt tracks to the foot of a rugged outcrop, we clamber up the rocks and make ourselves comfortable on a ledge outside the cave, the late afternoon sun still warm, the silence and the remoteness so relaxing, the view fantastic. Swallows and birds of prey flying overhead, in the distance donkeys grazing, set free after their hard days work and the bubbling sound of the shisha accompanies us while we chat. Ahmad lights the fire and prepares the meal, he calls it a barbecue but it’s nothing like we know in England.  A large pot of rice in water with vegetables, herbs and chicken livers is placed directly onto the burning wood, the chicken and onions coated in yoghurt and spices on a rack above it and an oil drum placed over the top to make an oven. Wood is then piled around and on top of the drum to increase the heat, the result is beautiful flavours and crispy coated chicken, delicious. 

Ahmad still sleeps in his cave most nights even though he has his house next to ours in the village.  He was born in this cave and his whole family lived here tending their goats and sheep and leading a very simple life, it is still his special place amongst this wonderful landscape and the stars. It is becoming very clear that Ahmad is no ordinary being; his penchant for this cave, and his feeling that the cave is his spiritual home, are just two of his traits. 

We drive home in the falling darkness as the sunset fuzzes behind the sandstorm now blowing through the valley, leaving Ahmad and his ever present shisha to another night in a cave. 

We, meanwhile, hole up in our Bedouin home, its sloping floors amusing us again, our senses alive with knowing how far this experience is from our life back home.