Petra Off The Beaten Path Tips by TheWanderingCamel Top 5 Page for this destination

A place of pilgrimage for Moslems

Jebel Haroun is on the horizon for most of your time in Petra. Sometimes, usually in the mornings, the sun glints on the little mosque on the top of the mountain. This is supposed to be the tomb of the Prophet Aaron, the brother of Moses. It is a holy place for the Moslems and many of them go there in pilgrimage on certain days in the year.

You can go there on excursion from Petra on a donkey or a camel or - more expensively - with a jeep. You can't get up to the top with any of them, but you can get pretty close. Count on the whole day for the trip and take plenty of water with you.

If you want to hike it, then you must have a guide with you. You can find camel, donkey, jeep and a trekking guide by asking around down in Petra.

You won't be going to visit the shrine, which is a holy place and in any case not very interesting, but to look at the view, which on a good day shows you the Red Sea to the south and the Dead Sea in the north!

Petra Kitchen

This is basically a cookery school for those wanting to learn how to make Arab dishes.

A group of local women in Petra have decided to take the big step outside the homes and work with guests each night, demonstrating and helping them prepare a tasty assortment of local dishes. The work is done under the supervision of a chef, but the guests themselves will help to prepare the dishes, cook the meal and even set the tables for dinner....

There are a number of different evening menus, all of which include a soup, a good assortment of salads and hot/cold mezza and a popular local main course such as mensaf, magluba, suwanee, kofta and other dishes one might encounter if invited to a family home for a meal. You can also learn how to prepare Bedouin tea, Turkish coffee and some herbal teas during the evening. The experience costs 30JD which includes the cookery course, meal and all non-alcoholic beverages as well as take-home recipes for all dishes prepared that evening.

Posted by Lulu

Phone: 03.215.5700

Website: http://kitchen@petramoon.com