Bab Es-Siq and other Petra, Jordan Things to Do Tips

This is the canyon you’ll have to walk through before accessing the wonders of Petra. By itself this is already worth the travel.
Try to come early in the morning or late in the evening, the magical atmosphere reaches its maximum when you walk alone along this tortuous siq for slightly more than 1 km.
Even if at some place it is only a couple of meters wide, anybody (should even be possible with a wheelchair) should be able to go through. For some reasons the ground has been covered with concrete. Imho, this is quite unfortunate for the authenticity of the place but I guess this is the price to pay so that as many persons as possible can access the Treasure…

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At some place, we can still see the original cobblestones for a couple of meters and imagine how the site was looking during the nabatanean times.
Many of those stones disappeared during the many flooding of the siq by the nearby river. Modern work has now been done to definitely avoid this type of flooding.

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In case you are wondering what is this kind of trench you can see at around 1 meter high in the rock, this is not a bank carved for the exhausted tourists, this is the aqueduct used by the Nabataneans. It was indeed the place of a long argyle pipe carrying water into the city.
Of course when the Romans besieged the city, this is the first thing they destroyed…

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At the end of the walk, finally comes this magical moment where you discover the Treasure, this finely sculpted façade still half hidden by the rough stones of the siq.
This is a classical view of Petra. If you have never been to Jordan and the picture still rings a bell, stop thinking where you could have seen it. A possible answer could be Indiana Jones!! In Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, that’s where the Holy Graal had been hidden. However if you remember the movie, there were several caves inside and still many traps before accessing the Graal. Sorry to disappoint you but in reality this is much simpler: there is just a couple of relatively uninteresting cubic rooms inside…

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About 40 meter high, completely carved in the rock, this is however the most impressing building of Petra. Kazneh means treasure; it was not a temple but simply a tomb. The Bedouins have long thought that the urn at the top was containing the treasure of the dead that has rested there for some time. That’s why you can see lots of bullet impacts on this part of the building: they simply tried to break this recipient open. Bad luck this is just plain stone! I’m glad they had no bazooka at that time…
We can’t say for sure when this tomb has been built: at some point between 1st century BC and 2nd AC. The decoration is inspired from Greek, Egyptian and Assyrian architecture. The stunning part is that most probably the sculptors had never seen these foreign countries. They took their ideas from the tales told by the numerous merchants passing by.
At least, that's what I've been told by a local guide. I've read somewhere else that the architects had indeed studied in Alexandria....

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Very recently (summer 2004) new rooms have been discovered at the foot of the building. You can see them at the bottom-left part of this picture. These rooms being below the ground level, they have been covered with a gate.
By the way, this picture has been taken from a place close to the top of the sik. This is just a small walk through an almost inexistent path from Djebel Al-Khubta (see following tip). I have been crazy enough to follow this path on my own but it could be wiser to hire a guide amongst the Bedouins.

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Walking to the left from the Kazneh to the Roman city, this is the first major monument you will see on your right.
It has been carved in the rock by the Nabataneans themselves at the beginning of the Christian time and was ready to welcome 3000 spectators. The Romans enlarged it later by demolishing a few tombs in the cliffs…
The picture has been taken from the stairs on the way to Djebel Al-Khubta.

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Still walking from the Kazneh to the Roman city, on your left you can admire several wonderful tombs. Don’t make the mistake of going straight on and go closer to further check these different tombs.

There is a wonderful view of their alignment when coming back on the roman way from the ancient city.

The perfect time to see them is the sunset when the sun only slightly lit their façades.

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With five horizontal divisions and 46meters high, this is the biggest façade of Petra but it is not in a very good state

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To the right of the palace tomb, in quite a bad state as well, the upper part is a copy of the Kazneh

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