The Rose Red City

It's a wonderful sight to see Petra peeking out from the Siq

Finally, after 1 km of walk

The majestic view of Petra

The Rose Red City or Petra debuted in the Hollywood in 1989 in the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade movie. Petra used to be the capital of the Nabataens and now has joined the ranks of Taj Mahal and Great Wall as one of the new seven wonders of the world. It was no wonder that this architecture was concurred with the prestigous rank as it was a wonder that how such city could be carved to the walls of the stones. Petra is especially stunning during the sunset and it is no wonder that Dean Burgon penned her majestic beauty in his poem entitled Petra.

" It seems no work of Man's creative hand, 
by labour wrought as wavering fancy planned;

But from the rock as if by magic grown,

eternal, silent, beautiful, alone!

Not virgin-white like that old Doric shrine,

where erst Athena held her rites divine;

Not saintly-grey, like many a minster fane,

that crowns the hill and consecrates the plain;

But rose-red as if the blush of dawn,

that first beheld them were not yet withdrawn;

The hues of youth upon a brow of woe,

which Man deemed old two thousand years ago,

match me such marvel save in Eastern clime,

a rose-red city half as old as time."

the beginning of the 1 km narrow gorge, the Siq


Some of the sights along Siq








a horse cart passing by the Siq

The whole experience into Petra is made especially made memorable with the Siq. Detail map of Petra can be found here.

We hike 900 steps all the way up to no. 24, Ad-Deir Monastery

Petra is part of the 12 day tour that we followed from Egypt to Jordan. We stay overnight in one of the hotel in Wadi Musa and had the whole day to explore the rose red city. It was summer in Jordan when we was there and extremely hot and humid. The whole Siq was an amazing journey and it was surreal to finally seeing Petra peeking out at us at the end of the Siq. Although one could take a horse cart along the way, I highly recommended to walk. Our tour guide left us to explore the rest of the site at noon and we decided to hike up the 900 steps to The Monastery, another site where Transformers: the Revenge of the Fallen was filmed. Since my friend being such a smart alec and decided not to bring any water during the whole visit inside Petra and let me carried my 1.5 litre of water and lugging my big ass camera, I decided not to share my water with him..Hah! Yea, I am evil when I wanted to.

upclose of Treasury of Petra


colourful sand bottles made from real sand colours of Jordan






The Royal Tombs


Temple of the Winged Lions


the beginning of the 900 steps hike up the Monastery


Monastery as seen from inside a restaurant

After the more than an hour hike up and had some fun with some perspective shots, we decided to hike back down and left Petra around late afternoon as we were tired, thirsty, hungry but contented with what we experienced. We spend a few minutes sitting at the bench in front of Petra. I was totally overwhelmed by the colours of Petra turning into reddish. I absolutely *heart* Petra !