In the golden morning sun, Wadi Rum was a visual spectacle with its vibrant colors. The red desert of Wadi Rum has been the stage for many Hollywood movies and Hindi songs. In the morning, by jeep, you can see the inscriptions carved by the hands of the Nabataean in the past, which are visible through the sandstones in three hours.
We drove from Wadi Rum to Wadi Musa, 115 km away, to see another wonder on Earth from Mars - Petra.
We were hungry and decided to have Mansaf (a big tray), the national food, for lunch. Any local would love it for its exquisite taste. The milk-like sauce mixed with goat’s ghee and curd is eaten with rice, and the leftover sauce is never wasted.
Entry to Petra, a famous and much-famed World Heritage Site today, is through a pass known as the “Jorda Pass.” There is no entry visa fee if you purchase the pass online before arriving in Jordan. The pass can also be used to visit more than 40 tourist attractions.
Petra is a wonder carved in stone by time beyond the poet’s infinite imagination and the sculptor’s handiwork. It is a beautiful world created by nature and ancient Nabataean culture.
The buildings are carved into the surrounding red rock surfaces using an early form of rock-cut architecture technique. The city has large and ornate tombs, rainwater tanks, waterworks, and theatres. Historians have convinced the Western world of its existence through the architecture and ruins of the great city. However, some mysteries will never be answered, especially those in Petra that were abandoned centuries ago.
Entering Petra through the “Siq,” a winding fissure in the rock that varies in width up to 200 meters, we saw the amazing structure. It was once seen on a calendar hanging on a wall in my childhood and later as a Windows 95 wallpaper. I prefer the distant view of the Treasury through a gap in the cliffs fifty meters above the fully formed view. Incidentally, my dear friend Suhail OT captured the scene in his camera, just as I enjoyed it.
Petra has many places and sights that are difficult to reach. We wanted to see As Dire (Monastery), one of Petra’s most beautiful structures. We paid double the ticket price of Wizzair to get from Abu Dhabi to Jordan. After climbing up the stone steps for one and a half hours through the mountains, it was dark. Even better than air travel, we rode Mule. Like the Treasury, the Monastery is a wonder.
By the time we came down the mountain, preparations for “Petra by Night” had already started. The Treasury was covered with candle-lit yellow paper, and the red rocks and alleys gave us a feeling of another world.
We didn’t buy tickets to see Petra by night or the musical evening because we had to drive to our hotel on the Dead Sea coast, which was 200 km away. Petra by Night requires a separate ticket, which is not included with the Petra entrance ticket. However, on the way back, we were lucky enough to see that wonderful world in golden light.
This is how journeys are - not only in the way we expect but also in how we immerse ourselves in them with our hearts. We experience many big and small things that we have never seen or experienced before in life. It is the traveler’s choice as to how they experience it. During the three-and-a-half-hour journey to the Dead Sea, we were often silent, and it was also a pleasure. The journey had prepared a dream dance of many experiences for us over two days.
Part 1: Wadi Rum Travel Memmories
Part 3: Dead Sea and Amman City
