Petra

Today we visited the ancient city of Petra.  We traveled along the King's Highway, or the Holy Road.  The people traveled along it, with stops along the way to praise the gods and goddesses.

The stops along the way ^^^

The King's Highway was also one of the places where Moses asked to travel to get to the Holy Land.  It was also important for commerce.  

This is a carving in the rocks that is supposed to be a traveler and it's camel. ^^^

The water sometimes eroded the sand to look like an animal, like the elephant above or the monkey with the two eyes and the wide open mouth. ^^^

Original road ^^^

The view ^^^

How the water traveled ^^^

A kitty cat I saw ^^^

My mom riding a camel ^^^

Finally we reached the Treasury.  It was a royal tomb (they were really into their tombs), and it had three burial places.  It is very huge, but still very intricate.

My grandma and I in front of it ^^^

My mom and I ^^^

To the right of it; you could ride a mule, horse, or camel ^^^

Tombs on tombs on tombs ^^^

A coliseum ^^^

An old mosaic ^^^

My mom with the guy who discovered it ^^^

Very old baptismal font ^^^

Very old temple ^^^

Later, my mom, I, our tour director, and another couple decided to climb a 900 step hike up to a carved monastery.  The other couple stopped about 2/3 of the ways up, and the rest of us decided to

climb on.  It was very tiring coming up, but even more coming down because there were not defined steps.  My mom and I also forgot to factor in our fear of heights, so we were hugging the wall.  

It was huge! You can barely see us! ^^^

Another cute kitty ^^^

Overall what it looked like ^^^

Me inside of it; it was huge! ^^^

Me sitting outside of it ^^^

Farther away ^^^

The view outside our hotel room ^^^

Today was very tiring and required extra dessert at dinner.  We now understand why Petra is one of the Seven Wonders of the World.  Tomorrow we are mostly on the bus as we are heading to the Wadi Rum Desert and then proceeding to the Dead Sea.

- Meghan