Docked at Aqaba Port

Latitude 29.53 Degrees North and
Longitude 35.00 Degrees East

April 17th, 2018

Weather: Bright Sun With Light Breeze and High of 86 Degrees With Low Humidity

Author: Don

The Viking Sun docked at Jordan's only ocean port city, Aqaba.  It is located at the southern tip of Jordan on the northeast end of the Aqaba Gulf (which itself is in the northeast corner of the Red Sea).  Aqaba is a modest city of about 150,000 people.  Jordan's entire population is 10 million, including about 1.5 million Syrian refugees.  In 1917, British Army Intelligence officer T.E. Lawrence (known as Lawrence of Arabia) led troops in the Battle of Aqaba here.  The white-robed Lawrence helped the Arabs run the Ottoman Empire (Turks) from the city's fortress during a camel charge.  Famously, Lawrence used nearby Wadi Rum, a vast desert canyon, as a base camp during his campaign.  Wadi Rum, with its red sandstone rocks and soil, was used for filming the Mars scenes of the Matt Damon film “The Martian”.

Today's shore excursion was a visit to the ancient canyon city of Petra, three hours north of Aqaba by tour bus.  Our bus ride took us through mostly mountainous desert country with few inhabitants and then up into the relatively less dry mountains.  Petra is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Petra (whose name is derived from the Greek word for “rock”) is a historical and archeological site in southern Jordan and is known as the rose-red city.  It lies on the slope of Jabal Al-Madbah among the mountains which form the eastern flank of Arabah valley that run from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba.  Petra may have been settled as long ago as 9,000 B.C., but it began to prosper as the capital of the Nabataean Empire from the 1^st century B.C., which grew rich through trade in frankincense, myrrh, and spices.  The Nabataeans were nomadic Arabs who invested in Petra's location along a trade route between the Mediterranean and the Orient. 

Petra's distinctive architecture involves “buildings” dug into the red sandstone cliffs of a series of canyons.  The Nabataeans created temples and buried their dead in intricate tombs dug into the cliffs.  Many of these were given elaborate facades carved into the rock face outside of the city's structures, which were mostly man-made caves.  The area is prone to flash floods, but the Nabataeans developed an ingenious water collection and distribution system using dams, cisterns and conduits through the canyons.  Remnants of this system can still be seen.

The city was later annexed by the Romans and continued to thrive until a large earthquake in 363 A.D. destroyed much of the city.  This combined with changing trade routes to eventually lead to the downfall of the Petra which was ultimately abandoned.  By the 7^th century, Petra appears to have been largely deserted and forgotten, except for the local Bedouins who have lived nearby and in the canyons ever since.  It was “rediscovered” by Europeans in the early 19^th century.

Our Petra visit required a five-mile roundtrip hike involving descending and then re-climbing 300 feet.  After about a half mile, the trail enters a beautiful slot canyon, called the Siq (meaning “shaft”), which in some places is only 10 feet wide.  Eventually, the Siq opens onto a wider canyon, revealing Al Khazna (meaning  “Treasury”) which is one of Petra's most magnificent facades.  It is 40 meters tall and decorated with Corinthian capitals, friezes and figures. Probably constructed in the 1^st century B.C., it is crowned by a funerary Urn, which according to legend concealed a pharaoh's treasure.  The urn is riddled with bullet holes from Bedouins hoping to dislodge the rumored treasure.

Petra also includes a Roman-style amphitheater carved out of the rock cliff, numerous tombs, a 2^nd century religious meeting hall called the “Monastery”, floor mosaics from a destroyed 5^th century church, as well as several large temples and royal tombs. 

One historic approach to Petra goes around nearby Jabal Haroun (“Aaron's Mountain”).  Atop it is the Tomb of Aaron, said to be the burial place of Aaron, brother of Moses.  We could see this peak from the hotel where we stopped for lunch.

Petra was all incredible and unforgettable.  It really was too much to properly absorb on a very hot, dry single afternoon (after a three-hour bus ride), but it was a terrific day!