Petra: a Rose-Red City Half as Old as Time

Petra is certainly one of the most amazing places I've seen.

On the right is a picture of the town of Wadi Musa (Valley of Moses) which is next to Petra, and the location that Christians believe Moses struck a rock from which water flowed. It is from this spring that the Nabataens built channels into the city of Petra. Petra (which is Greek for rock) was established in the 6th century BC as the capital city of the Nabataeans for two key reasons. Firstly, they could control the water in the area through a complex system of dams and conduits, creating an artificial oasis. Secondly, they could also control the trade routes (including the silk road and incense and spice routes) that linked China, India and Southern Arabia to North Africa, Greece and Rome, and collect lucrative taxes.

To enter Petra, one must walk for about 2 kilometers, firstly through an open area, where you can witness cubical tombs carved out of rock, called "djinn houses" as the Bedouin thought they must be homes to spirits, as well as various residences carved into rocks. Apparently, these tombs and residences were for the poorest classes, and with the amount of work that went into the poorer abodes and tombs, one realises that Petra itself must be phenomenal.

Djinn Houses

Poorer abodes on the outskirts of Petra

Next, one reaches a 1.2km passage called the "Siq", which is a dry gorge, flanked by soaring 80m high cliff faces. The gorge dried up due to the Nabataens installing dams, and they also carved conduits into each side of the passage, with one side to carry drinking water, and the other to carry water for irrigation. At one point, you can even see a piece of clay pipe in the irrigation side, and it's amazing to think its about 2600 years old. Back in the day, the siq was the East entrance to Petra, and the North and South entrances were more popular, but these days only the Siq is used, due to its proximity to Wadi Musa, where most people stay when they visit Petra.



The Siq



Drinking water conduit on the left, carved out for the entire distance of the siq

Clay pipe remains

Along the way, there are also various intricately carved niches which used to display the busts of Arab Gods and Goddesses from pre-Islamic times, and also of their Kings. The main God they workshipped was Dushara with his trinity of Goddess wives. Sacrifices were regularly made to Dushara, and one can see holes in the rock around the niches where the Nabataens would insert the blood of the sacrifices which would slowly drip out, so that it looked like the rock was weeping blood. I imagine Dushara would have been impressed with the spectacle - I was with the concept.

The remains of a carving of a king wearing Chinese shoes

A niche that housed Dushara

A cheesy family shot in the Siq, where divorcees would stand when remarrying. I'm not sure if this equated to us renewing our vows or brought us one step closer to divorce.

Head already swimming with tales of religious rituals, ancient politics and power plays, the sights of rock carvings of Nabataen kings that wore Chinese shoes and camels, dams and irrigation, and beautifully coloured rocks of every shade of red and pink, orange and yellow, smells of horses clopping up and dwen the siq carrying tourists .... one marvels at the Nabataen civilisation....And then....as you reach the end of the Siq....you see this:

Enter, Petra!




The mind boggles!

























This building was named The Treasury, but is in fact an ancient tomb to a Nabataen king and queen.




For my lawyer friends, you can see in the picture below an ancient court of justice complete with holding cells below:

In the second century AD, Petra became part of the Roman empire, and the Roman influence on the city is also very evident with an amphitheatre and roman columns. There is also the remains of a christian church.

In the fourth century AD, Petra was rocked by a series of earthquakes that detroyed many of the buildings. The earthquakes were that devastating that the city was abandoned. Over the many centuries that have since passed, the city was vulnerable to thieves, and all the treasures have been  stolen. There were further eathquakes and more parts collapsed. So Petra now is very much a shadow of its former self, and still absolutely majestic and a true wonder of the world.

Charlie hangs out reflecting on Petra's sites and how to talk her parents into a camel ride

Charlie reaches a compromise and rides a donkey with a friendly Bedouin boy

Our weekend at the Red Sea and Wadi Rum

Why is the Red Sea called the "Red" Sea, I wondered, as I peered out over its vast blue expanse while Charlie thrashed Dave at a game of chess.                                                                                                              

Is it because of the reddish mountains that surround it? (You can see the mountains on the Egyptian shoreline in this photo to the right.)  Or the red sand of its shores? 

 

I turned to my trusty friend wikipedia on return to Amman, and found no definitive answer. Wiki, in all its sage wisdom, advises:

* The name of the sea may signify the seasonal blooms of the red-coloured Trichodesmium erythraeum near the water's surface.

* Another hypothesis is that the name comes from the Himyarite, a local group whose own name means red.

* A theory favored by some modern scholars is that the name red is referring to the direction South, just as the Black Sea's name may refer to North. The basis of this theory is that some Asiatic languages used color words to refer to the cardinal directions. Herodotus on one occasion uses Red Sea and Southern Sea interchangeably.

* It is theorized that it was named so because it borders the Egyptian Desert, which the ancient Egyptians called the Dashret or "red land"; therefore it would have been the sea of the red land.

At least my theory was one of the options. What I loved about our trip to Aquaba, which is the Jordanian city that has access to the Red Sea, is that we were right on the borders of Saudi Arabia, Israel and Egypt. I kept pointing out the different countries to Dave. "See those hills over there - that's Egypt. Hear that doof doof music? Yep, that's Israel." Here's a map so you can see that Aquaba (in the red circle) is indeed at an awesome junction of Middle East borders.  After Friday night in Aquaba and many swims for Charlie, and a bit of rock climbing training, we headed to Wadi Rum, the rock climber's mecca. It's also well known for its connection with British officer, T.E.Lawrence, otherwise known as Lawrence of Arabia, who set up his base there during the Arab Revolt of 1917-18. Wadi Rum went on to play another important part in Jordan's history when King Hussein met his English wife there, while she was working as a secretary on the film set of Lawrence of Arabia. 

On the way to Wadi Rum, I was delighted to see many street signs warning of random camels crossing the road. So I had to stop and photograph the sign much like an European has to photograph a kangaroo sign in Australia. And then we had to chase some camels down the road to show Charlie (Dave is holding her in the picture below but you can't tell). Wadi Rum is amazing. I'll let the pictures do the talking of ancient Nabataen rock inscriptions, cliff hanger moments and encounters with lovely old Bedouin men. 

Date Night at Hashem's

Thursday nights are date nights. My husband and I go out and sample Amman's night life. This really is a treat after 10 months where we were able to count our nights out as a couple sans baby on one hand. Having a baby is an absolute blessing and joy, and so is date night.

Last Thursday we went to Hashem Restaurant. It is the oldest restaurant in Amman, and rumour has it, the most popular. They also claim they invented the felafel. Hubby is a bit sceptical about that, but I have no reason not to believe. Photos of Hashem felafel cooking action above. It's located in a little alley in Downtown Amman (the old part of the city), with plastic tables and chairs in two tiled rooms that spill into the alley itself. It's a very simple affair. There are no menus, no plates or cutlery, no napkins. The waiters (mostly Egyptians) just lay down a couple of pieces of A4 sized butchers paper on the table, and ask you what you want. You don't go to Hashem's for the decor, but there is ambience by the bucketload.

And damn tasty food. Although there's not really much to choose from, so we just ordered everything they had to offer, which was felafels, pita, hommus, fuul (fava bean paste), sliced tomato, raw onion and mint tea (with extra mint, served, oddly, with the onion). There's already chilli and salt and a jug of water on the table. And that's it. As they say, simple things are often the best, and it was definitely very very tasty. And very very cheap. The whole meal came to 4 Jordanian Dinars, or $5.25 in Aussie dollars.

With bellies full and date night adventure in our hearts, we set off to explore more of the Downtown area. We didn't make it very far before a portly middle aged gentleman in a stained blue business shirt, surrounded by young men and a hookah pipe (known here as a nargileh) called out to us as we walked by "Can I ask you just one question - are you from Argentina?"

We soon found ourselves seated amongst the men, drinking Arabic coffee and talking, it turned out, to one of the esteemed owners of Hashem's Restaurant, Ibrahim "Adonis" Hashem. Apparently, the Greeks gave him the name Adonis due to his Love God antics when he visited the Greek Islands. Despite his portly stature and stained shirt, I believed him. Adonis told us many stories. Some about Hashem, and how the King has eaten there three times, and one time, he announced he would pay for the whole restaurant, and Ibrahim Adonis says he never saw so many people eat so fast or so much. He said he has 82 staff, mostly Egyptian, and he pays them 11 JD a day. He also owns a diving business at Aquaba. He told us he is very rich and pointed to his car, which was very big and shiny. He has two divorces under his belt, but the great tragedy of his life is that his German girlfriend of 12 years was killed in a bomb blast in Jerusalem seven years ago. He said he is still crazy for her and would not be able to sleep that night, due to the memory of her loss haunting him. Ibrahim explained that many of the same family owned the businesses surrounding Hashem's, including the mending and alterations place we were sitting outside. We met the owner of that shop too, David (the man in black at the back), as well as their nephews and apprentices. By the end of the conversation and coffee, Ibrahim Adonis Hashem declared us part of his family and invited us to his place for a home cooked meal, of "Upside Down", called Magloba in Arabic, which I had never heard of, but now know it is a traditional Jordanian dish of lamb, rice and vegetables. We had tried mansaf, which is similar ingredients, but cooked in a completely different way. (Out of curiosity, I found the recipe online, and included it below.) Hubby and I had no doubt that Adonis was absolutely genuine, as we continue to discover, this warm reception is the Jordanian way. With a promise to return to Hashem one day soon and organise our visit to our new family's home, we decided to end date night with a visit to Rainbow street, which is the cultural hub of the Downtown area.

Rainbow street has many fantastic restuarants, cafes, theatres and galleries. We tried to get into a club that had live music - a guy on a guitar belting out arabic tunes (and plenty of alcohol and nargileh being consumed by locals, mind you) - but it was full to the brim so we went to an artist's cafe, equipped with water colours, paint brushes and paper for its patrons. We shared a ball of incredibly rich chocolate goodness, and I practiced my arabic with a Date Night sentiment in watercolour.

Magloba: Upside-Down

Ingredients

Salt & salt water

Olive oil

1 medium Eggplant and 2 medium carrots (peeled and sliced)

1 ½ pounds Lamb (traditional choice) or Beef cubed

½ cup finely chopped Onion

1 to 2 cloves garlic (minced)

Pepper ground, allspice ground, nutmeg, dash of cinnamon, ½ to 1 teaspoon saffron

2 cups long-grain rice

¼ to ½ teaspoon turmeric

2 fresh tomatoes (cut in wedges)

2 lemons (cut in wedges)

Sprigs of parsley

¼ cup toasted almonds.

Directions

Cover with salt water 1 medium Eggplant, sliced, and soak for 30 minutes. Drain and pat dry.

In a large heavy saucepan or Dutch oven, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil, add and fry: sliced Eggplant and 2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced. Remove and set aside.

In same oil, brown: 1 ½ pounds Lamb (traditional choice) or Beef, cubed ½ cup finely chopped Onion, 1 to 2 cloves garlic, minced.

Add: 2 teaspoons salt, ½ teaspoon pepper, ¼ teaspoon ground all spice, ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg, dash of cinnamon, 1 ½ cups water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered, until meat is tender, about 30 minutes for Lamb, and 45 to 60 minutes for Beef.

Meanwhile, in a separate saucepan, boil 3 cups water. Remove from heat and add: 2 cups long-grain rice, ½ to 1 teaspoon saffron or ¼ to ½ teaspoon turmeric. Cover and soak for 10 minutes. Drain and set rice aside. When meat is tender, drain and reserve broth.

Place browned vegetables over meat in saucepan. Arrange Eggplant and carrot slices attractively. Top with soaked rice, carefully leveling it.

Add enough water to reserved broth to make 3 cups. Slowly pour over rice. DO NOT STIR! Return to heat, bring to a boil and then simmer, covered, until liquid is absorbed, about 15 minutes. Turn off heat and let stand, covered, 15 more minutes.

Invert saucepan on a large attractive platter, at least 2 to 3 inches in diameter larger than the saucepan. Let stand 10 minutes more while preparing: 2 fresh tomatoes, cut in wedges, 2 lemons, cut in wedges, and sprigs of parsley.

Carefully remove pan so rice does not lose shape of pan. Sprinkle with ¼ cup toasted almonds. Lay tomato and lemon wedges and parsley sprigs around edges of the platter. Pass a bowl of plain yogurt to spoon over top. Squeeze lemon over Magloba to taste. Serve with pita bread and sliced cucumbers in olive oil and vinegar.