Thanks for visiting. This blog is a meeting place for anyone who has been or is planning to go to Petra in Jordan. Please feel free to send us your stories or photographs and we will reciprocate with the latest news and advice to help plan your next journey.
In a recent Sunday Times travel clinic, Richard Green provided some very useful guidance to a reader who wanted to know more about the Petra by candle light tour.
It’s called ‘Petra by Night’, and currently takes place on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings, from about 8:30, and costs £8pp. You can buy tickets from any of the bigger hotels in Wadi Musa (the tourist town near to the site), or the Petra main ticket office. Start times change depending on the season, and it is dependent on enough people booking, so you should book at the first opportunity after you arrive.
And he gives away a little Petra secret:
the light comes from about 1,800 ‘lanterns’ - actually just brown paper bags half full of sand with a tea candles in each, placed there by hand before each tour
Caitlin Dempsey, who writes the Geo Lounge blog - concerning all things to do with geography - reckons it was only a matter of time before someone pulled the results of the New7Wonders competition into a Google Mashup.
And sure enough, as she points out, somebody has. Here are all seven - including Petra - pinpointed on the CoolMaps site. Zoom in and you will see how much detail Google has on the each of the new 7 wonders.
This week he tells the story of the religious scholar John William Burgon (1813 - 1888) who never actually visited Petra, but still managed to capture its essence in a famous sonnet, simply called Petra. Read more about him in his Wikipedia entry.
It seems no work of Man’s creative hand,
by labor wrought as wavering fancy plnned;
But from the rock as 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that first beheld them were not yet withdrawn;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 yough 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.
Lysa De Thomas is currently visiting Jordan with a group of teachers, professors and a resident archaeologist to study the Jordanian Education System, work with Iraqi refugees, and learn about Islamic culture. They took time out to visit Petra recently and Lysa’s description of Petra at night in her blog is amongst the most evocative we have read.
In front of the Treasury are hundreds of lighted luminaries and a Bedouin man sitting in the middle of them playing an exotic string instrument. He soon begins to sing and his voice is echoed throughout the area. He sings and plays for about 10 minutes and you can’t help but feel like you’ve been transported to another time. I swear I could almost hear the voices of past civilizations and see their ghosts wandering though the crowd.
Then, just as the man stops singing, beautiful flute music gradually meanders out of the treasury. Little by little its tune grows and gently envelopes the crowd of mesmerized people. Never before, in any ancient ruin, in any sacred area, in any natural area, have I been as awestruct as I was that very moment.
Occasionally the quest to find an original view of Petra reaches new heights but here is one photograph which plumbs new depths. We’re not sure if there are any worms in this part of Petra but if there are, this is a worm’s-eye view.
It is part of a photo set on Fi’s Space on Flickr. Enjoy the original here.
Just in case you were not in Lisbon on Saturday night and just in case you did not happen to have a ticket for the announcement of the New7Wonders, here is a taste of the climax of the event.
The announcement that Petra is one of the winners is about two and half minutes in.
We could not have said it better ourselves. Scott MacLeod, Cairo bureau chief for Time, is also one of the authors of the magazine’s Middle East blog. In his most recent post he writes about Petra’s success in the New7Wonders competition. He speaks with experience:
When I first visited Petra in 1983, it wasn’t much of a tourist site. You had to take a rickety 7 a.m. Jett bus from Amman, ride five hours or so south on a two-lane road and stay at the dodgy Rest House at the entrance. A 160-page book on Jordan given to me at the time by the Ministry of Information devoted all of four paragraphs to Petra’s wonders. Bedouin were still living in Petra’s tombs.
Fortunately for the millions of tourists who have subsequently visited Petra, the journey and the experience have improved considerably.
The votes have been counted - 90 million of them - and Petra has just been announced as one of the New 7 Wonders at the gala presentation in Lisbon.
There is mass celebration in Jordan, no more so than in Petra itself. The Waleg blogger has been posting live from the ruins at Petra and sums up the general exuberance right now:
The atmosphere here in Petra is unbelievable! People are shouting & jumping & dancing! Live broadcast from all over Jordan show the excitement & happiness; people are out on the streets celebrating their own Petra, the magical city.
We can’t believe it! This is fantastic! I’m jumping with joy!
Well done Petra. We are really happy for everyone there.
Gareth Scurlock made the trip to Jordan recently for the Times. You can now read his various adventures in eco-tourism camps, Petra and Wadi Rum on the Times Online website.
His description of the plight of the Dead Sea is interesting; so too his trip to the Dana Nature Reserve. And of course he found Petra particularly moving.
It’s a 90-minute early morning drive to Petra, where the entrance is as affecting as the monuments, tombs and temples themselves. The walk down through the Siq, a narrow gorge that at places is only a couple of metres wide, is nearly a mile long. The vertical cliffs used to be joined, now wrought apart by earthquakes and other natural forces. The bright red hues of weathered sandstone hint at the majesty ahead.
For most people, the image that typifies the Red Rose City is that of the Treasury, carved out of the same vertical cliffs as those that line the Siq. Emerging from the gorge, the massive, ornate wall is revealed gradually and is awe-inspiring even if you’ve seen the picture hundreds of times.
Want an edible souvenir from Petra? Everybody takes home dates (and with good reason). But how about Jordan almonds? We found these in an excellent photo set from Flickr user Kapitän Tziaak.
Jordan almonds, also known as sugared almonds, are a type of confectionery consisting of almonds covered solely with a hard sugar coating in various pastel colors. A classic form of dragée, they are often used as wedding favors due to the “bitter” almonds and the “sweet” sugar representing bittersweet married life. No longer exclusive to weddings, they are now used as gifts for other occasions and have become a popular movie candy snack. Jordan almonds commonly come in pastel, spring themed colors such as lilac, pale yellow, light green, and white.
Bernard Weber, the founder of the New7Wonders competition, has written his final New7Wonders World Tour blog post before the competition ends on Friday. He finishes with some general thoughts on the event:
Not only is N7W the first global voting campaign, but also the first time that children can participate in an election. They are our best champions, as well as important guarantors that the voting is objective - because most of them have not developed nationalistic feelings and they vote for what they truly like and admire.
It’s been a fascinating journey and looking back through earlier posts, it seems clear the visit to Petra was one of the highlights.
Queen Rania is truly one of the most beautiful, graceful and elegant personalities that I have had the occasion to meet on the World Tour so far. She represents in person the dignity of the Jordanian people and their ancient culture in a superb way. What a great blend of reality, dream and the aura of a site like Petra - together with the people representing this unique place! The event itself was a spectacular mega-production, a recreation of Nabatean life in the marketplace in front of the Treasury 2,000 years ago, followed by a terrific Roman legion performance and gladiator fight in the ancient amphitheater.
Over-nighting in desert lodges run by Jordan’s Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature, the group followed old caravan routes, encountering Jordanian wildlife and some stunning scenery along the way.
Our accommodation was at another RSCN reserve, Ajloun, and we slept in safari-style tented lodges surrounded by pistachio, carob and ilex trees. That night all I could hear was the occasional shriek of an owl then, at dawn, the call to prayer from a village mosque. As the morning mist lifted, we walked through terraced olive groves and pasture thick with wildflowers to the Byzantine church of Mar Elyas, supposed birthplace of the prophet Elijah, on a lonely limestone hilltop.
They had originally planned to avoid Petra but couldn’t resist.
…the lure of the rose-red city was too great. Joining a night-time excursion, we walked along the famous Siq, our way lit by hundreds of candles. Sitting on kilims in the moonlight, we listened in awe as a Bedouin played a mournful tune on his reed pipe, the strains echoing round the wall and wafting up to the stars.
In a recent Sunday Times travel clinic, Richard Green provided some very useful guidance to a reader who wanted to know more about the Petra by candle light tour.
Caitlin Dempsey, who writes the 
Lysa De Thomas is currently visiting Jordan with a group of teachers, professors and a resident archaeologist to study the Jordanian Education System, work with Iraqi refugees, and learn about Islamic culture. They took time out to visit Petra recently and Lysa’s 
Occasionally the quest to find an original view of Petra reaches new heights but here is one photograph which plumbs new depths. We’re not sure if there are any worms in this part of Petra but if there are, this is a worm’s-eye view.
We could not have said it better ourselves. 
Gareth Scurlock made the trip to Jordan recently for the 
Want an edible souvenir from Petra? Everybody takes home dates (and with good reason). But how about Jordan almonds? We found 
Bernard Weber, the founder of the 
A few days ago we mentioned 
To return to the idea of a taking 
At first sight it looks like just another camel shot - until you look more closely and realise the camel is 
