A Wonder of the World

Gillian, Nick and I went to Petra on my first day in Jordan.  The entire city is carved out of these gorgeous cliffs that are burnt-orange ribboned with red and rose.  The structures, which date back to the 6th century B.C., look born rather than built, as if some accident of nature shaped columns and carved out caves.  

Petra is Jordan's most visited tourist attraction, which means that it is covered with Bedouins selling jewelry, drinks, and rides on camels/donkeys and tourists from all over the world.  It feels like a strange combination of theme park and pilgrimage site.

A really cool thing about Petra is that very little is closed off.  You have almost complete liberty to explore the ruins and caves.  Someone official looking did motion for us to get down from a kind of high cliff we climbed, but that only happened once

The bookends of Petra are the remarkably beautiful buildings of the Treasury and the Monastery.  The climb up to the Monastery was my cardio for the trip, but man was it worth it.  We saw a view called "The End of the World," and looking out over the mountains I almost felt like I was at the edge of the Earth.

Why would they call it "Petra" when the "p" sound doesn't exist in Arabic?
Maria