Our Indiana Jones Moment

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Welcome to Jordan – مرحبا بكم في الأردن (Arabic)

Have you ever been to one of the seven ancient wonders of the world?  I have… Petra!

While visiting Israel, we decided to be like Indiana Jones and jump across the border into Jordan.  We went on a full day tour around Petra and saw many ancient ruins.  Our fabulous tour guide, Abdul gave us a lot of interesting information.

Abdul, our tour guide
Abdul, our tour guide

It all started with the Nabataeans

The Nabataeans were a clever Arab tribe who originally came from the Arabian Peninsula.  They were merchants who went around the world with their camel caravans and gathered ideas from different empires for their own temples and buildings.  They discovered the sandstone was quite soft and started to carve simple tombs.  They followed the way other empires such as the Greeks, the Egyptians and the Mesopotamians built their temples and buildings.  They created Petra.

For most of our tour, we walked through the beautiful gorges and took some absolutely AMAZING photos!

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The Nabataeans carved many tombs into the sandstone, some are simple and some are complex.  At the beginning of our tour, Abdul showed us a particularly interesting carving called the Obelisk tomb.  The top of the tomb was carved into the rock and was influenced by the Egyptians. The bottom half has pillars which is evidence of the Greek influence.

Every 50 meters, the Nabataeans carved things into the sandstone such as statues of their gods .

an interesting carving
an interesting carving

One of the carvings was of the sun god with eyes, a nose, ears but no mouth.  They put eyes on because the god could see them.  They put a nose so that the god could smell the incense which was carrying the prayers of the people to him.  They put ears because the god could hear the people’s prayers.  The reason they did not put a mouth was because the god did not speak to them.

The Roman Theatre

The theatre might look like it was built by the Romans, but it was actually built by the Nabataeans in the first century AD.  It was carved into the rock instead of being built with big stone blocks like the one I saw in Ephesus.  Later on, when the Romans took over, they carried on building the theatre from where the Nabataeans left off.  Sadly, they found out that some tombs in the way, destroyed them and continued building.

Here is the theatre
Here is the theatre

Here comes our Indiana Jones Moment!

The Treasury

We arrived at the Treasury which everyone recognized instantly and was excited to see.

Here was our first view….

Here was our first view
Here was our first view

 

Then we saw the masterpiece….

Ta daa
Ta daa

The Treasury is, believe it or not, FULLY CARVED INTO THE CLIFF!  Yes, this spectacular, ancient building was fully carved into the rock.  It is 43 meters tall and 30 meters wide.  It was made a a tomb for an important Nabataen king and it is believed that it was later used as a temple.

 

Our family photo
Our family photo

There are many different carvings on the temple.  Starting at the top, on each side of the broken pediment there are two falcons to fight off the evil spirits.  Near the bottom, Zeus’ two sons, Castor and Pollux are there to protect the tombs.  An important question to ask is “how did the people get forty-three meters high to do these carvings?”  Well, if you see the indentations going up both sides of the façade, that is where they would put the scaffolding.

 

We had our Indiana Jones moment because in The Last Crusade, (the third movie) Indiana Jones goes to The Treasury in Petra to find the Holy Grail.  Unfortunately, we did not find the Holy Grail, but we were still there to see what he saw!

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Added Colour

The Animals

What stood out in addition to all of the carvings and the tombs were the animals.  There were many people with donkeys, camels and horses all with beautiful coloured saddles on their backs.  It really added colour not only because of the saddles but because it made the experience more authentic.  There were no cars driving around everywhere or new paved streets.  If somebody needed a taxi they would have to ask the camel taxi driver!

The taxi stop!
The taxi stop!
Looking right at the camera
Looking right at the camera

The Sand Art

Another thing that stood out for me was the sand art.  The sand art is made out of coloured sand to make pictures of the desert and the camels inside of a glass bottle.  The Bedouin artists use a funnel with a long tube to make the right shapes of the camels.  For Christmas, my parents bought Mikhaila and I some sand art with our names written inside.

Ta daa!
Ta daa!

Over all Petra was AMAZING!!!!!!  I really liked walking around and exploring the ruins of this ancient civilization.  I really recommend going to Petra to see all of the tombs and the great detail carved in them.  Now I understand why it is an ancient wonder of the world.


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Comments

16 responses to “Our Indiana Jones Moment”

  1. Thanks Zoe! You have really roused my curiosity to see Petra! Love Baba

    1. Hi!

      Before you go to visit Petra, you should watch the third Indiana Jones movie. You can see the picture in the movie, the picture in my post, and in person.

  2. Zoe, I feel like I was with you on your trip to Petra. It looks so amazing and inspiring. I am sure you just stand in awe at how they carved the buildings into the cliff. I need to see Indiana Jones again! Carry your sand art home carefully, it is something very special! Travel Safely, Love Teta Doreen

    1. Hi!

      I think it is amazing that it was all carved into the rock with so much detail. The Indiana Jones movies are AWESOME. Definitely worth watching three, or four, or five hundred times. 🙂

  3. Zoe… I have been reading all of your posts. On the way to work the other day, I was wondering if you guys made it out to Petra. Glad to hear that you did? That first glimpse must have been so exciting. It is on my bucket list.

    1. Hi!

      It was so exciting seeing the first glimpse of it. Our tour guide tricked us and made us think that there was a statue behind us when the treasury was in front of us. 🙂

  4. Herta Park Avatar
    Herta Park

    Thank you Zoe, for your detailed and a wee bit emotional telling of this adventure. Your pictures are great and I learned a lot ( again) about the history behind the pictures. Your blogs are showing a developing maturity!
    Did you get in and out of there by camel taxi?

    1. Hi!

      Unfortunately, we did not take a camel taxi, we alredy did that in Morocco! 🙂

  5. Amazing colour on the animals, that sand art is simply wild, thanks for the pics. AS to being Indiana Jones……very cool!

    1. Hi!

      It was super neat watching the man do the sand art. The shape of the camel looks so real!

  6. Zoe,
    Petra sounds like a truly amazing place! I loved the pictures of the carvings! The Treasury is awesome looking! I also enjoyed the pictures of the animals but was blown away by the sand art!! Thank you for including such detailed writing and wonderful pictures!
    Ginny

    1. Hi!

      Thank you for commenting on my post! 🙂

      I really enjoyed the sand art and my parents tricked Mikhaila and I when they bought some for us for Christmas. My dad pretended to go take some pictures and told us to wait for him by the treasury when he was actually getting the sand art! 🙂 Mikhaila and I had no idea!

  7. I have family in Jordan, and I have been there a few times, but I have never been all the way to Petra. Did you get to ride a camel? What was it like? Is it possible to go into any of the tombs or buildings and, if so, what is it like inside?

    Thank you!

    Dimitra

    1. Hi!

      We did not get to ride camels in Petra, but we did in Morocco! It was a lot of fun! 🙂 Unfortunately, we did not get to go inside of the building as no one knows if it will collapse but it was great to see them from the outside.

  8. Annie S. Avatar

    What an amazing place to visit Zoe and family! Athena and I really enjoyed reading your post – it was very descriptive and informative. Thank you for all the gorgeous pictures, especially of the amazing Treasury!

    1. Hi!

      I am glad that you and athena enjoyed my post and photos! 🙂 It really is an amazing place to visit!