The Adventures of Kerri & Matt

After Petra we went for dinner in a cave. There were lots of caves with lights which were very pretty.

This was the cave we ate in. It was carved out 2000 years ago as a burial chamber.

For dinner we had maqluba, which means upside down. Because it is made upside down in the pot and then dumped over to serve.

A chicken is put on the bottom of the pot cut into quarters. This was covered with eggplant and potato cut into quarter inch slices, and then 2.5kg of rice. And is made with 1.5 spoons magruba seasoning from Saudi Arabia, which includes sage, cardamom, nutmeg and maybe thyme and tumeric and salt and pepper.
They sprinkled fresh parsley on top after flipping.

There were some other saucy things to eat with pitas.

And desert.

And after dinner there was dancing.

The Siq is the canyon that leads to Petra.

This is the entrance to the narrow canyon.

This tunnel was originally built over 2000 years ago to control flooding. It is 88m long.

The carved blocky things are called Djinn blocks, because the Bedouin people believed djinn lived in them.

They were actually carved centuries before that and were probably some kind of memorial to the dead.

This was the water supply to the city, carved into the canyon walls. But it wasn’t for drinking water.

It is covered in some places to keep debris out.

This is the drinking water channel. It was concealed and out of reach so that people could not poison it.

This is pretty much all that remains of a carving in the canyon of a merchant and camels. Lots of the canyon was decorated originally, but it didn’t keep very well.

The canyon was very pretty.

An even better view than the best view in Petra was found at the Sacrificial Hight Place.

You can see the modern city at the back over the canyon walls.

And you can see all of the ancient tombs carved into the walls.

And the Roman ruins on the other side.

We climbed to the top of the world to get the best view.

We were really excited.

We were a bit confused when we got here.

Because this sign says the best view is to the left.

But clearly the best view must be over here.

We went left first, and determined that it had the best view of the best view point. To the right was the best view, but you couldn’t see much due to the fog.