In the Footsteps of Jesus

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

From a bus somewhere in the Jordanian desert

We’re an unusually quiet mob this morning, having risen around 6 to be packed for our long flight and to have our suitcases outside our rooms by 7.

We have a very, very long day ahead: a 4 hour drive from Petra to the Allenby Bridge Crossing into Israel, then an afternoon to fill before being delivered to Ben Gurion around 7pm for the first leg of our flight home.

When I say “rooms” you should not understand these as conventional hotel rooms. Our hotel, Taybet Zaman, is part of the Sofitel chain and has been created out of an old stone Bedouin village, and our rooms like little houses in a community. While on the outside there was just a hint of many of the church campsites we’ve experienced over the years, you only had to open a door to see a different story. And a hotel that hangs quilts on its walls just has to be classy! We farewelled the five who are waiting to be driven to Amman later for their ongoing flights (to Cairo) - and we are now only thirteen sleepy souls, listening to iPods, dozing or exchanging the odd word while the bare,brown countryside flashes past, on our way to the Allenby Bridge crossing.

I just dozed off for just a moment – and Boak snapped me!

David Roberts

David Roberts was a Scottish artist who travelled extensively in the Middle East in the mid-nineteenth century, painting and sketching the exotic locations he visited.

As you can imagine, they caused quite a lot of excitement and interest in artistic circles back home.

I thought it might be fun to manipulate several of my own photographs of Petra today and place each of them with its corresponding David Roberts lithograph.

The Treasury

The Temple

The Royal Tombs

Petra taxis

Some wondered whether to do it…. But we had wandered quite a long way by the time we stopped for refreshments. In the end most took the plunge and rode back to the Treasury (the entrance to the Siq path) either on donkeys…. … or by camel. M2 even saved her legs and took one of these buggies right to the top. (This isn’t her in the photo). The horses were waiting to take us to the gate. (I apologise for showing so many photos of myself in this post, but they were all I had. I think our fellow-travellers are waiting to view their own ‘animal antics’ back home before sharing their photos with me!)

Marguerite van Geldermalsen

30 years ago Marguerite van Geldermalsen was just a young New Zealand tourist visiting Petra when she met and fell in love with Mohammad Abdullah.

A friend enthusiastically recommended I read her book, “Married to a Bedouin”, before going there, but I had no idea I would actually get to meet Marguerite, who is arguably Petra’s most well-known resident today. With her son Raami she sells to-die-for silver jewellery on her stall in the centre of the Petra ruins. The imaginative pieces are designed by young Jordanian artists and made by 17 local women in Wadi Mousa (the town at the entrance to the Petra site) at the Al Amarat Jewellery Centre (established by the Noor Al-Hussein Foundation to help improve the living standards of local women).

She also shows amazing patience and graciousness when total strangers like me ask her to pose for photographs!

Take a wander round Petra with us

Petra

All night long a stiff east wind had been blowing, the sign opposite our front door creaking as it swung on its hinges. Conditions for exploring Petra would be comfortably mild, but those of us who hadn’t worn a scarf to shield our face were to be troubled by the dust whipped up from time to time by the strong gusts.

The entry into Petra, after passing through the Visitors’ Centre, is in two stages. There is a 600m downward sloping path where walkers take the right hand road and horse-riders take the left. A horse-ride for this section was included in our pre-paid entry fee, but Khalid very wisely advised us that we would better appreciate our horse ride on the way back. How right he was! It was worth the US$3.00 tip we had to pay our horseman to lead us that last 600m.

At the end of this stretch we entered the siq, or canyon, through which visitors to Petra have travelled for thousands of years. The sides soared above us, the rock becoming ever pinker (with iron oxide) as we grew closer to the magical entrance to the “rose-red city” itself.

I was “in the pink”!

Khalid stopped us frequently (a little too frequently – we were impatient to get on and be there) to explain carved inscriptions, gods and water channels, but finally he called us all together to point out something high up on the rock wall to the side. No matter how hard we squinted we still couldn’t see what he was pointing at.

“Perhaps you’re looking in the wrong place”, he announced with a twinkle in his eye – and turned us in the direction of the path. Suddenly we gasped. We had our first glimpse of the view that has graced a thousand travelogues - the magnificent Treasury facade! (As I loitered there, snapping more photos, I heard the same scenario repeated by every guide wanting to build the dramatic moment for his flock.)

I thought our group photo on Mount Scopus with Jerusalem gloriously spread out below was pretty impressive, but you have to agree this one is wonderful too – even if Khalid, quite understandably, felt the backdrop was more important than the people!