Petra By Night

I arrived just in time for a Petra By Night tour. The park usually closes at 6:00, but they re-open it three nights a week for a special tour of Petra ... at night.

Before the tour started, I enjoyed a refreshing drink at the Cave, the world's oldest bar at 2,000 years old. I was sad that the bar did not have cave-like furniture. I expected the bathroom walls to have tons of historic grafiti, but, alas, there were no bathrooms. If it wasn't in a remote corner of Jordan, in the middle of a tourist trap, and ridiculously overpriced, I would go all the time.

The tour started with a "gather round" lecture by the group leader. He asked us to be silent on the walk into the site, to walk single-file, and to wait until after the Bedouin music concert and lecture before taking pictures. "I do not mind if married people want to walk together or hold hands, and we wish the single people the best of luck." He also cautioned us to keep track of our possessions. "All the time people leave things at the site: cameras, mobile phones, children,
wives ..."

We walked single-file into the site and through the siq, a long mountain corridor, to the Treasury, Petra's most famous and glorious monument. The path was lit by candles in paper bags. The light was strong enough for us to see the path, but soft enough to imagine what it would be like to travel this path by candle or torch, as people did long ago.

(In case you are wondering, these are not my photos -- my point-and-shoot was completely useless in this setting.)

Finally, we arrived at the Treasury. The courtyard in front of it was lit by thousands of candles. The effect was just amazing. The guides arranged us in neat rows around the courtyard, and we sat on the ground, staring up at the Treasury with our mouths hanging open.

I laid down, and looked up at both the Treasury and the brilliant, clear, starry sky.


It was perfectly still and tranquil until we heard camels moaning from far in the distance. Sigh.

Tomorrow, I'm going to check it out in the daylight. I'm hoping I can overcome a bad case of ruin-itis (diminishing returns on enjoyment of ruins). I'm also hoping I can drag myself out of bed for the 6:00 a.m. opening time and avoid the scorching mid-day heat.