That's right I went to Petra! It was so amazing, and one of the most beautiful places I have been in my entire life. For those of you who don't know what Petra is, it's an ancient Nabatean city and it is most know because of the beautiful red rock is carved out to form all of the buildings. The whole place is a series of building nestled into the hills. After the destruction of the ancient people Beduins moved into the caves surrounding the area and lived there up until only like 15 years ago. It's a huge tourist spot but because we were there in the off season we had the place mostly to ourselves. If oyur wondering why it was the off season it's because it was one hundred and two degrees... That 102 degrees! Out in the desert, under the sun all day, no air conditioning, sweating like you will never be clean again. Some people might think that's not bad but for this pacific northwest girl it was rough! Luckily I only got sunburned on the back of my neck thanks to my hardy ball cap and after about three days of extreme exhaustion I was fine. Sidenote I drank 4 liters of water that day and never went pee.... too much info? maybe but you should just know I was sweating a lot. All in all it was great and totally worth it and I will tell the rest through pics :)
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| We got to our hotel the night before really late and when we showed up they had welcome drinks and welcome ponies? It was quite interesting but I couldn't pass up a free pony ride so I hopped on. Sidenote: Like 10 people got sick from the welcome drinks, it was a bread and rice sort of trip. |
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| In the siq hiking down to the ruins. It was like am and the shadows were so pretty. It was the shaded parts of the day. |
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| This is called elephant rock, if you look close it looks like an elephant! |
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| This was when everyone started to gasp. This was our first view after making our way down the siq. |
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| A view of the top of the Monastery, it was insanely cool. |
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| The inside of this little cave shows the sandstone rock found in Petra. It comes in shades of red and blacks and yellow and purples and as well as blues and greens. |
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| The tombs we hiked to later in the day, not nearly as bad as the Monastery. |
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| Ah finally a whole view of the Monastery. We hiked up here in 102 degree weather. It is the equivalent of going up a 42 story building and the whole time it is makeshift stairs or walking through sand. Of course I had decided that day to bring my whole camera backpack. I was so hot and sweaty I thought I would die. When I got to the top I just sat and stared because I was too tired to care, don't worry I quickly recovered and got to taking pictures. |
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| Lindsey, Me, Emily, and Katie in front of the Monastery door. |
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| More Monastery! |
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| Tombs we visited. They were a source of the scant shade that day. |
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| The ceilings inside of the tombs |
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| Jumping picture, of course! |
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| The second tomb we went to, we didn't go inside this one because there were some sketchy looking Beduins inside and it was just us girls but it was really beautiful from the outside. |
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| A Beduins stand where they were selling necklaces. One thing I regret is not buying some of these. |
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| I think this is my favorite of the Monastery pictures. |
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| O goodness. This is a Beduin man trying to convince me to get on his camel. My brain is saying, "no, no, NO! Do not get on that filthy thing." |
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| But alas, I got on and even mustered out a smile. It was actually cool but now that I can say I have done it I don't know that it will happen again... |
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| Going down. It would have been so easy to slip off this thing and it was way high up. I would be the one who would fall off a camel. |
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| The treasury, it's actually a tomb, I don't know if I mentioned that but it is a lot more interesting if you say treasury. It is so cool to be able to see such an iconic place. And it was a great change from tells... Shhh don't tell m teachers I said that. |
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| The Treasury is featured most famously in the Last Crusade installment of Indiana Jones. |
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| Heres the shot in the movie just before they ride off into the sunset. "You were named after the dog!" Got to love Sean Connery |
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| Also the Monastery is where in Transformers 2 they find the allspark... I think I am not sure but if you watch it and I am wrong I am sorry. |
