Petra via The Canyon of the Crescent Moon

You'll have to forgive the hollywood reference, but ever since the closing scenes to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade were filmed using Al-Khazenh (the Treasury) as the majestic backdrop, the references around town are inescapable. The obvious fallacies here are that the Siq you walk through to approach Petra is neither a canyon nor is it shaped like a crescent moon. The siq was formed by tectonic forces and although it meanders somewhat, it is generally pretty straight.

It seems that throughout the portrayal of my various travelling adventures, I have used up just about all the superlatives I have in my repertoire. This is probably just as well, because none of them would do justice to Petra.

Acting on advice received during a dinner table conversation the night before, I arrived at Petra early and didn't pause too long as I wandered through the Siq, past the Treasury, the Street of Facades and the colonnaded street on my way to the Monastery (Al-Deir). Although this meant that I missed the best light of late afternoon, I savoured 15 glorious minutes with nobody else around (aside from a couple of bedouin guys who would later furnish me with coffee and postcards). My hopes for recreating the photos taken by Sue and Pat from atop the Monastery were dashed when it became clear that you could no longer climb to the top. I was told later that this was partly to protect the site and partly because a tourist fell to their death a few years ago.

Although Petra, at any one time, probably has more visitors than all of the other places in Jordan and Syria, combined, that I have experienced; its sheer vastness means that you can easily explore down a canyon and see not more than a handful of people for a couple of hours. After finding such a place for lunch, I decided to tackle another climb up to the Crusader Fort. It has unsurpassed views of the main area of ruins. Again, I delighted in the fact that I could watch all the little ants scurrying amongst the ruins below (well, the people looked like ants from that high up), as I sat in perfect sun-drenched solitude!

As the afternoon wore on and I found myself wandering past the Garden Tomb, Soldier's Tomb and Garden Triclinium, I realised that I had set off on my third climb for the day. Once I reached the High Place of Sacrifice I felt as though I had a special affinity with all those beasts that made their fateful journey all those years ago! Foot weary and muscle sore, I made it down the 750 steps and through the Siq just in time to pick up the 6 o'clock shuttle back to the Hotel, a full 11 hours after I had been dropped there.

Another sumptuous dinner and spirited dinner conversation saw an end to a long, exhausting but utterly awe inspiring and spectacular day.