Time suspended in starlight visit to Petra

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/04/2006 (7115 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

PETRA, Jordan — There was just enough starlight to see the way as I walked along an uneven path through the long, narrow valley leading to the ancient city of Petra.

The shifting shadows and the echoes heard in the valley, over a kilometre long, lent a sense of wonder and mystery to the approach to the carved city.

As my guide explained: “Visit Petra by day to see. Visit Petra by night to feel.”

It was true. In the darkness and near silence, I felt as if time had been suspended, and that I was walking with the ghosts of the countless people who had passed that way before.

Petra, a three-hour drive south from the Jordanian capital Amman, is one of the most famous archeological sites in the Middle East, but many people in the West know it from a Hollywood movie: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Remember the scene where Indiana gallops down a narrow desert valley and emerges before a temple carved into the rock? That valley is the wadi or siq, a steep gorge, that has guarded the entrance to Petra for centuries, and the temple is Al-Khazneh, a tomb built to house the remains of a Nabatean king.

It is the city that Lawrence of Arabia called “brilliant Petra — the most wonderful place in the world.”

Founded in the first century BC and carved out of the pink sandstone of the desert, Petra was once home to more than 20,000 inhabitants. Fountains gurgled and gardens grew in a mercantile metropolis that stood at the crossroads of the Silk Road and the spice routes.

It was built by the Nabateans, an ancient Arabic tribe, but was enlarged and influenced by the Greeks, the Romans, and the many trading nations whose caravans made the city wealthy.

For reasons not fully understood, the city was abandoned some time in the 12th century. Historians have blamed a series of devastating earthquakes, changes in trading patterns and political alliances that eroded Petra’s power, and the disappearance of that most important of substances in the desert, water.

Lost to western eyes for centuries, Petra was rediscovered by Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt in 1812. Since then, archeologists and historians have been reconstructing the story of the lost city of stone.

By day, Petra is full of light and activity. All the striations and hues of the carved sandstone tombs, columns and temples are visible. The city shows best in the early morning or late in the day when the light is softer. The colour of the stone changes according to the time of day, from shades of pale gold to warm pink.

Some excursions into Petra are physically demanding. A steep climb leads to the High Place of Sacrifice, a Nabatean site for religious ceremonies and funeral rites. I had to stop several times to catch my breath but the ascent was well worth the effort. The panoramic view from the top is probably the best way to take in the scope of the city. From there, you can see the royal tombs, the colonnaded street and the ruins of several temples.

A visit to the farthest high tomb called the Monastery involves climbing 800 steps cut into the rock face, but for those who don’t wish to make the climb, there are fleet-footed donkeys that will take you up.

Down below, there are horse-drawn carriages that transport visitors to and from the entrance of the valley. Camels, whose owners smile and invite you for a “taxi ride,” are an easy way to see Petra’s sites without getting tired.

Little Petra is a nearby smaller site, also with carved edifices in a narrow valley, and is said to be the place where the trading caravans camped. From here, there is a hike that takes you past Bedouin encampments and into Petra from the back.

There are more than 3,000 monuments, tombs and temples in Petra, so a visitor needs more than one day — ideally three or four — to explore all its mysteries.

Adjacent to the city is the town of Wadi Musa where there are several good hotels and restaurants.

The Movenpik Resort Petra, just metres from the entrance to the city, has a good restaurant, a spa and a pool for tired explorers.

If a trip to Jordan is not on your calendar this year, Petra is still within your reach without leaving Canada. The Museum of Civilization in Ottawa is featuring the exhibition Petra: Lost City of Stone from April 7 until Jan. 2.

The show tells the story of the city through over 170 exceptional objects, including stone sculptures and reliefs, ceramics, metalwork, terracotta water pipes, artworks in various media and other artifacts selected from museums in Jordan, Europe and the United States. Many of the items were unearthed only recently and are being shown in North America for the first time.

Either way, whether you encounter Petra directly or via the exhibition, the city that Victorian poet Dean Burgon called “a rose-red city half as old as time” is sure to enthral.

–Canadian Press

Barbara Ramsay Orr is a freelance writer based in Burlington, Ont. She travelled to Jordan as a guest of the Jordan Tourist Board, Royal Jordanian Airlines and the Canadian Museum of Civilization.

PHOTO ROBERT ORR / CANADIAN PRESS

The Treasury, the most famous carved rock face at Petra, Jordan.