Today my dad and I went to Petra and by far the best part was hanging with the camels and watching my dad walk around in a red checkered Bedouin head scarf (Keffieh)....for sure a site I never thought I would see.

Petra is about a 3/3.5 hour drive each way from Amman, so its a really long day to go there and back, but its was beautiful. Petra is south of Amman, past the Dead Sea but before Aqaba. Petra is also called, "The Rose City," because of the color of the stone that its all carved out of. So kind of them to think of me way back when a name a city after me. Much appreciated! :)

Here is a tiny ity bity little bit of history in honor of my grandpa because whenever I tell him I am moving some place or I that I went anywhere, he immediately tells me the history is of that place or looks it up pretty quickly ....it is always a top priority and always something I never know anything about. He's a history buff, the rest of my family and I are not. Anyways, here you go Dukey!

~Petra was established possibly as early as 312 BCE as the capital city of the Nabataeans and it is a symbol of Jordan. It lies on the slope of Jebel al-Madhbah in a basin among the mountains which form the eastern flank of Arabah (Wadi Araba), the large valley running from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba. Petra has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1985.

~The site remained unknown to the Western world until 1812, when it was introduced by Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt. It was described as "a rose-red city half as old as time" in a Newdigate Prize-winning poem by John William Burgon.
UNESCO has described it as "one of the most precious cultural properties of man's cultural heritage."

~This part of the country was biblically assigned to the Horites, the predecessors of the Edomites. The habits of the original natives may have influenced the Nabataean custom of burying the dead and offering worship in half-excavated caves.

Enough of that! :) Petra has a very long history but I am not able to wrap my head around it much just yet. It is a beautiful site and by far, like most I assume, the Treasury (pictured above!) is my favorite. Its hands down the most beautiful site in Petra and known as such, which I did not know that before. Its a fantastic place and I'm very happy and lucky to have been able to experience it, but for me personally, I found myself a little underwhelmed by it. I don't want to come off as ungrateful or anything, but to "to each their own," right?

Its a stunning walk and the history is incredible and its a fun experience. Plus, the treasury is just amazing...but I think maybe because I have heard so much insane hype about the place for so long....I think that in my lack of understanding I was expecting for all of it to look like the Treasury in a way. So, it was cool, but weirdly a little anti-climatic for me. For me personally, Machu Picchu is still the most breathtaking site I have ever been too.

My dad and I had a fun and exhausting day and I'm really happy we went. He loved it! I didn't realize quite how much my dad loves scenery and how detailed he gets about it. So, good to know. We took the long drive to Petra and when we arrived my dad wanted to buy a hat because it is about 85-90 degrees here every day now in Amman and its even hotter down south. Sunny without a single cloud out so he needed a hat. We were immediately ambushed of course by a little 10 year old boy selling Keffieh or Hatta (the red-checked scarves) and he ran to my dad and started to wrap one around his head.

So, my dad decided why not and bought it. It was very touristy and ridiculous but fun and good souvenir for him. So he wore that all day. Yep. We walked for hours all around Petra and then on the way back my dad wanted to take a camel ride so we did. I have never ridden a camel and neither had my dad. It was fun. I went a little crazy and took so many pictures of camels because I always so a little nuts and take a sick amount of photos of animals when they are around, but I also was in love with the colorful blankets they had on.

I'm happy my dad was able to visit and have some of these new experiences!
My mom is coming next week. Yep. Just random timing...family week in Jordan. Now, I just need to get my sister here (a.k.a. kidnap her and force her to come!)

All of the Petra and Citadel photos are here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/90572684@N08/sets/