Mustafa picked us up at 8. His office staff was trying to find another guide to finish the tour so Mustafa could go back to his embassy job, but no one was available. Mustafa told the embassy he had an emergency and he would not be in for the rest of the week. Lucky us. He arrived with some delicious snacks, pita bread stuffed with a little oil, goat cheese, and thyme.
Our ultimate designation is Little Petra but we had several stops along the way. We drove on the King’s Highway, considered one of the Middle East’s most scenic and ancient routes along the rift valley. It is very arid, but beautiful. There was a dam which created a lake. Unlike any other landscape I have ever seen.
Our first stop was Al Karak, a Crusader castle. This area had been inhabited since Iron Age. The castle construction started in 1140AD. Because of its position east of the Dead Sea, Karak Castle was able to control Bedouin herders as well as the trade routes from Damascus to Egypt and Mecca. It transferred hands between the Muslims and the the Crusaders several times and was reinforced and modified over time.
Our next stop was Al Shobek, another Crusader castle from about the same time. Here are some pictures:
And views of the landscape from the castle.
After exploring Al Shobek we headed to Wadi Musa, home to Petra and the Nabataeans. The Nabataeans were nomadic Bedouin tribes that roamed the desert. They discovered Wadi Musa and developed a “caravan rest stop,” now known as Petra. As you have seen from the pictures the land was quite arid so they developed a lot of technology to collect and manage water.
Once arriving at Wadi Musa, Mustafa took us to a Nabataean well. Here are pictures of the well and the landscape around the well.
Then we went into Little Petra. Little Petra, which is northern part of the Petra Archeological Park, is believed to have housed visiting caravans. We saw areas that looked like dormitories. One area even had frescoes.
On the way out of Little Petra Mustafa showed us a vat for crushing grapes to make wine.
It was a beautiful sunset that evening.
We got checked into our hotel and decided to wander around the town and look for a restaurant since we’d skipped lunch. We ended up in the Movenpick Hotel. We had a drink in the bar and then went to check out the Mediterranean restaurant. There was another couple who had a reservation and the wait staff told us that the restaurant menu was the same as the bar menu, so Rick and I went on to check out the buffet. We ended up going back to the bar and who did we see but the other couple, whose names we later learned were Ben and Vivien, who had had a reservation at the restaurant. Obviously they decided they would rather eat at the bar. They invited us to join them and we had a delightful dinner with them. They were from Holland and were staying in the hotel. Here is a picture of them.
