JORDAN- A Voyage into the Past- Part 2 No visit to Jordan will be complete without visiting the Dead Sea, the lowest part of the earth( Dead sea is 400 metres below sea level) . Being in one of the earth’s hottest regions , the ever increasing evaporation produces an astonishing salinity of 31 % ( 7 times more than other oceans) . The excess salt content allows you to float like a cork in the sea, a rare life time experience. The increasing potash extracting factories in the region and overzealous irrigation projects are killing the Dead Sea, which is shrinking every year. I had a special mineral rich mud pack application on the body, before floating in the Dead sea. Every minute abrasion in my body, especially my fresh shaven cheeks, burned like hell, with the combination of salty water and scorching sun!!! After the Dead Sea experience we drove to the hot springs of Maine , where the waterfalls sweep down the mountainous cliffs and has medicinal value. We ended our day driving through the ravines and canyons of Wadi Mujeeb.( old Aaron river mentioned in the Bible) The views from the top of these canyons are breathtaking . We set off to Petra, the next day , in the early morning driving through the Desert Highway.We reached Petra sufficiently earlier to beat the milling crowds who would soon fill the place. Petra is the 7’th wonder of the modern world. Petra has appeared in a lot of Hollywood movies like Indiana Jones & Last Crusade (1989), Sinbad & Eye of the Tiger ( 1977), and Transformers-Revenge of the fallen ( 2009) Located amid rugged desert canyons and mountains, Petra was the impressive capital of the Nabataean Kingdom from around 6’th century BC . The kingdom was later absorbed into the Roman empire in AD 106 . Petra continued to flourishing until a catastrophic earthquake destroyed the buildings and its water management systems. In AD 663.After Saladin’s conquest of the Middle East in 1189 , Petra was abandoned ,and its ruins remain hidden to most of the world, until it was discovered by the Swiss explorer Johan Ludwig Burckhardt in 1812. The highlight of this trek , is the passage through a sandstone slot canyon known as “Siq”, that leads directly to Al Khazneh- “ The Treasury” , perhaps the most stunning of Petra’s dozen’s of breath taking features. In reality, the Treasury is nothing more than a façade with a relatively small hall, once used as a royal tomb. After the treasury come the other ruins like the stadium, royal tombs, paved streets etc, with the Monastery at the far end. You have to climb a flight of 800 stairs to reach the monastery, as this will take another 2-3 hours, and my driver- Ammeen’s allocated time to me was getting over, I gave up on this task, and made a hasty retreat.
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 16:25:15 +0000
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