the shop at the edge of the world, where steve and a.j. bought their "genuine" bedouin knives. here the shop owners break rocks on the ground so they can sell each little piece for "one dollar"
on the way down from the high places i asked to take a picture with this shop owner, she agreed but said "no touch," which touching my arm. i made sure my hands and arms were locked in place
i also "took possession" of an unoccupied shop, which was probably also owned by the same woman in the previous picture
we all tried to get enlightened under a tree... wait, wrong tree, wrong country, wrong religion, and we didn't have 40 days and 40 nights either!
more pictures of the treasury (some after the sun had already gone down, see the difference in colors)
the view from the altar at the high places
the altar, now also a makeshift trinket store, the man operating it would later save my day by bringing my camera back from way up there (in less than ten minutes), a hike that took us more than half and hour. he said he took the short-cut... through a crevice on the mountain! why I left my camera there? because I wanted to test the agility and honesty of the local bedouin man... :)
guys start the ascent toward the high places, with our fierce leader in front. it took us about an hour to get up there! 
the trek started with more than the ones who made it to the top but I am not revealing names here!
finally, after our guide tricked us to look the other way and walk backwards for about five minutes, voila, through the crevice a first peak at the most famous building in Petra, the "treasury." "wows!" were not economized
the famous "siq" a natural fault line, which became the passageway to Petra
our guide instructs us as we approach the entrance to the city
steve -- not even a donkey is beyond his befriending... (this is beyond the high places in Petra)
ornate door entrance
caves -- burial tombs?
steve and a. j. - reenacting the biblical story of abraham offering isaac as a sacrifice
their version was even more "miraculous" (instead of one animal to sacrifice, two!)
one of the tombs at the outskirts of the city 
" taxis" (horses with their horsemen) run up and down the trail to and from the city, as you can see, the guy on the back is riding hard. Dan said the female horse he rode was tired from a full day's work (and she is having a baby in 8 weeks!)
right before the crevice (the siq) which served as the access to the city, our guide, Naj, stops to give us an overview of the history of the area
going down the trail to the lost city of Petra
the view from our hotel in aqaba, a city on the dead sea with connections to several countries and disparate cultures -- the rich fly here on their private plans to enjoy its warm waters and beautiful sceneryPastor Ivanildo C. Trindade
No comments:
Post a Comment