Before visiting Petra, we visited what is called “Little Petra.” It was little and looked a lot like what I expected Petra to look like. Although on a much smaller scale, it was still very impressive!
This camel licked Brandon’s arm. Fortunately though, the camels in Jordan are a lot more attractive than their Egyptian cousins (remember this guy? Now that’s a face not for the faint of heart!).
After seeing so many ruins in Egypt that are actually constructed from monumental slabs of stone, cut and hauled and placed and carved, it was pretty amazing to see these beautiful buildings carved into the existing rock.
Much of the detail carved into the sandstone has weathered away, but much remains. Little carved staircases snaked through the cliffs everywhere you looked.
Petra and Little Petra were built by the Nabateans more than 2000 years ago. According to our guide, some of the badly eroded rooms in Little Petra are believed to have been dining rooms with cisterns for delivering water, and many of the dwellings are badly charred from cooking fires since the sites were inhabited by locals until recently.
There was a steep staircase up through a cut in the rock that everyone seemed to be climbing so we decided we had better climb it too.
And I’m glad we did because the view was amazing. We enjoyed the sunset for a few minutes before turning around and heading to the bus.
Little Petra was fascinating and beautiful and only made me more excited to see the wonder of world version the next day.
Those are some truly amazing carvings.