The last couple of days in Jordan were spent in Aqaba which is a city in the South. To get there we rode a bus through four hours of nothing but dull, dry desert. I have never seen such nothingness in all my life! It made me greatful for the greenery that I see daily even in the dry season in Africa. We had some friends who live in Aqaba and the view from their house allows them to see the city of Eilot, Israel (which apparently is a very happening place), as well as the Red Sea which is literally right across the road from their apartment. Just through the mountains is Cairo, Egypt and about a 20 minute drive from their house is the Saudia Arabia border. There is a lot of history and a lot of culture culminating in that place. It was pretty neat just to be there and be close to so many historically and culturally distinct locations.
The next day was spent driving through Wadi Rum with our Beduoin tour guide. I don’t really know how to describe it as anything other than a desert with lots of large stone mountains all around. We hiked up to a couple of different locations just to see the view and then we spent the evening watching the sunset from the top of one of the mountains. It was really a beautiful place!
My last day in Jordan was spent at Petra, one of the 7 wonders of the world and where some of Indiana Jones was filmed. Again, I understimated this place because I really didn’t know what it was. I had seen pictures of the two most famous rock facades and I thought that was kind of what Petra was. Oh my goodness was I wrong! Actually, Petra is miles and miles of ruins spanning several centuries. I really get lost on all the history and the architecture, but I did not get lost on the fact that I walked for about two hours and everywhere we looked were columns, temples, and buildings carved into the side of mountains. It was unbelievable! To imagine people living here and the preservation of these artifacts after all these years. Petra has suffered 3 earthquakes and supposedly lost 50% of it history in those earthquakes, but it is still absolutely mind boggling to see! Definitely a highlight of my time in Jordan! #gallery-655-2 { margin: auto; } #gallery-655-2 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-655-2 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-655-2 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */
