Petra

Jordan holiday, day 4
Best viewed in LARGE!

It's taken me months to decide which one, of the hundreds of photos I took, to blip. This one shows the sheer scale of the site - hundreds of tombs everywhere (this is only a small section) and the place is so extensive the visitor numbers are not too oppressive.

We entered with our guide just before 9am and Mr T and I emerged at 6.30pm. It was a lot of walking! We wore T shirts and were absolutely freezing in the morning, Mr T's shirt was dark blue and it matched his arms! We walked right through, past the 'treasury' (the one made famous in the Indiana Jones films) to the 'monastery' several kilometres further on with about 800 steps on the way. All of them are actually ancient tombs. Our guide told us a lot about the history of the place then we had the afternoon to explore on our own.

Apparently the local Bedouin used to live in the cave tombs, then about 35 years ago the Jordanian government decided to make it a World heritage site. They built a village for the Bedouin, who were not happy about moving and stuck out for a better deal. As a result they own all the concessions in the park - gift stalls (one round every corner!) cafes, shops, toilets (1 JD for paper if you do not have your own), camel & donkey rides, horse & carriage rides, 'genuine' Roman coins... etc. Not as bad as it sounds though the scarcity of toilets is a problem.

In the evening, back at our hotel, our group had a Jordanian meal - Mansaf - lamb cooked with yoghurt served with rice and traditional bread in a hug round dish. We ate in a cave at the back of the restaurant, sitting in a circle on low seats.

Then early to bed to get energy for our second day in Petra!