The Adventures of Kerri & Matt

Petra is mostly old tombs.

Some of them don’t look that great anymore but you wouldn’t either after thousands of years.

The ones that are deeply recessed into the walls held up better than the ones near the front.

Most of them were carved into the walls, which is why they survived the earthquakes. So most of the damage is erosion.

But the very top of this one was built out of stone.

This tomb was on the way to the canyon and much more exposed. It is also missing the steps and instead has pyramids on the top.

You can see the steps here a bit better. Moreover you can see the cool rock that they carved into.

The stone is really pretty and colourful.

Especially the swirly bits.

Lots and lots of swirly bits.

On the inside it was carved with a texture like this.

Many of the tombs have stairways at the top for the dead to take to the afterlife. Of course if you could get there with stairs I don’t know why you would have to be dead first, and if you don’t need stairs what’s the point in carving stairs halfway?

This one was really deeply recessed with a tiny door to nowhere.

The less rich people had to cram simpler tombs into whatever bit of canyon was left.

It looks really crowded, but how much space do dead people need?

The even poorer people had caves that were barely decorated. And they are full of camels. Probably not back then though.

This is the inside of one of the tiny tombs with holes for the bodies.

All the tombs in the canyon made a very pretty view.

From the main site of Petra you can barely see the top of the monastery poking out of the mountain.

To see more we had to take a long hike.

Through treacherous tunnels.

It was worth it.

It is very big.

The camel’s favourite snack is the desert onions.

That’s these guys.

And here is the onion part.

This is what they look like when they are flowering.

And this is where they wind up when the camel is done with them.

This was our first daytime glimpse of the Treasury through the canyon.

It is carved into the walls of the canyon, not built.

It is well recessed into the walls and protected by the narrow canyon, so it is pretty well preserved.

It was carved from the top down using scaffolding. These marks are probably from the scaffolding.

It should actually be a full storey taller, but the ground level has gone up so much you can’t see the bottom anymore. They excavated the bottom but you can only see it by getting close and looking down.

It is called the treasury because people thought there was treasure in this urn at the top. They damaged it trying to get at it (mostly with guns), but there was never any there.

When it was finished it was covered with marble, which is now missing. But you can see the holes that once attached it.

Matt climbed to the top of this to get a better view of the treasury.

They took the long way around so it’s not quite as difficult as it looks.

Here he is at the top.

There is the path down. Just to the lower left part of the picture.

And here is the view from up top away from the edge.

It was a pretty good walk with a very different view at the end of it. It looked a bit smaller from up top.

Kerri’s arm was too sore for climbing, so she had to wait at the bottom.

So when you actually see the bottom and people down below for scale it doesn’t look so small anymore.