Jordan Day 3-Saturday

The morning sun's bright light christened the massive rock faces in beautiful shades of red and gold. We all couldn't help but stare in wide eyed wonder at the majestic sculpted rock surrounding us. We had just begun our third day in Jordan, and, from what I had seen in my first few minutes in Petra, I knew it was going to be magical.
After walking through this very narrow ridge we had this first glimpse of something amazing...

Ta-da! The treasury! I('m standing in front of it) It is carved out of a single rock face. Incredible.

The ancient city of Petra was the capital city of the Nabataeans, a desert wondering people group whom Herod the Great's mother came from (see blog post Negev-Sunday to see another Nabataean structure). Petra was re-discovered in 1807 and has been estimated to have been built somewhere around 25 BC-50 AD (right around the time of Jesus!!!). This giant valley (Wadi Musa) claims around 750 different monuments, so, as you may guess, we had a lot to cover in the 5 short hours we were there.

We split up into groups quickly, and I found myself with 5 of my wonderful, but very athletic and energetic guy friends. We booked it for the first hour, running up hundreds of steps, jumping over big crevices in the rocks, and scaling steep hill sides.

Trey, me and John on the top of the high place.

It was great fun, and we saw a lot of great sights in that first hour, but the adventure really began when Trey and I got separated from the group and were sort of lost (though he would never admit to that) amongst the cliffs for a good hour. Trey made me climb down some pretty intense “short-cuts” where I knew it would take just one faulty step and.......(-: But God gave this klutzy girl sure footing for the day, so I made it through those cliffs and canyons safe and sound with a giant smile and my face!

I'm not sure how, but we climbed down that crevice in the rocks...it was almost completely vertical!

Why do jumping shots look so cool? I love the sun in the background.

All along the way there were Jordanian people selling little trinkets to the tourists.

More cool rocks.

There was one point in the day when, after we had met up with some other friends, Trey got separated from the group. I didn't want to leave him behind (just in case he fell off a cliff or something, and he had been my spotter when I climbed down those rock faces) so I went on my own to look for him. Here is where the best part of the whole trip happened: I ran into a little Bedouin girl named Anwar who was selling jewelry to any tourists that happened to go by. After I spoke to her with the tiny Arabic I knew, she began to talk to me in English while I hiked around. She told me to come sit in her little cave and have tea with her, but I insisted that I had to find my friend before he got to far away. Her response: “It's OK, you come sit with me and I be your friend!” I couldn't help but grin as I thanked her for the offer but tried to explain that it was important for me to keep going. I held out my hand and asked if she, as my new friend, would like to join me as I searched the desert and rocks. She joined me for a bit and then went back to her little table of wares. I saw her a few more times as I passed near her and after I finally found Trey, 5 of us went back to her little nook in the desert so I could buy a necklace, take a picture with her, and say goodbye.

Anwar and me. I will never forget this precious little girl.

Incredible hu?

I could have spent at least three more days here, but we needed to continue on and so we headed to a fabulous lookout over the Rift Valley.

Can you figure out which one is me? Me, Ash, Kayt, and Liz

We had a few more stops, but at our last stop at the end of the day we stopped to talk to a few women.

This lovely woman let me take a picture of her beautiful son while her friend invited us to come have dinner at their little house. We regretted that we had to turn them down as we ran to meet the bus and the rest of our group. Maybe someday we will be back...