Petra--a wonder of the world

We spent Monday getting to Petra, in Petra, and finally returning to Eilat. This is an amazing site, and an equally fascinating story. Petra, dating to about 200 BC, was built by the Nabatean Arabs, a group about which little is known. They do not have a written history. This part of the world is on the ancient trade route and thus experienced great wealth. Petra was an inhabited city, its citizens living in caves carved from the sand stone. These amazing structures, carved from the limestone (the one in the center of the picture is about 140 feet high), were not only burial places, they were the halls where the wakes were held, gatherings to celebrate the recent dead, recall their lives, share food and drink with family and friends. The Treasury, called so by the modern Bedouins, was never a repository of wealth, but local legend believed that there must have been great wealth secreted in the walls. None has been found.
Upper left hand horse drawn cart is a prime means of transportation for the 4 mile round trip from the visitor center to the major sites. The road is covered with limestone stones which makes for a very kidney shaking ride. Most of us walked.
The local Bedouins operate all of the concessions in Petra, including the camel rides. These are large, not friendly animals, but they are work horses worthy of study. The only university studying the camel is the Hebrew University in Eilat. Right picture is the opening of the ravine that leads to the main sites at Petra. The first European to view these sites, well known to the local Bedouins, was in 1827 or thereabouts. I can only imagine the awe with which he viewed these sites.
The trip through Jordan was an experience in itself. We drove by Israeli tour bus to the border between Eilat and Aquaba, disembarked, walked across the border, through the former no man's land (now cleared of mines), then into Jordan and their security check points. Jordan and Israel are at peace, but it is a peace between governments, not the peoples who continue to distrust one another. Jordan has begun to be developed since the 1994 peace with Israel. Israel partners with Jordan in sharing irregation technology, as well as other valuable industrial techniques. One can only be proud to see what Israel has done to regain the desert, build a strong, economically sound country.