Categories: Jordan

Jordan 2012 Day 6 – Karak Castle, Shobak Castle and Petra

One of the biggest highlight for the trip was the visit to one of the seven wonders of the modern world. From the dead sea, we travelled south, visiting some of the crusaders castles along the way. The first one being Karak Castle.

View of the castle from the road.

An old cannon beside the castle wall.

Exploring the ruins with a view of the surrounding hills.

Within the castle we were shielded from the light and the heat.

View from the castle top of another part of the castle.

We had a guide to brought us around the castle whom gave us information about the some of the areas. It would not make much sense walking around by ourselves. Left for the next castle, Shobak castle.

Shobak Castle also atop a hill. Much harder to get to compared to Karak Castle.

Mostly in ruins but door arches and stairways still visibly seen.

Solid blocks of stone made up the walls of the castle.

Arabic inscriptions on the wall of the watchtower.

We drove towards Petra and checked into a accommodation Cleopetra Hotel, sited at the Wadi Musa town, minutes (of driving) from Petra.

Simple room.

Bathroom that came with a tub.

Got out from the hotel and stopped at a local restaurant for lunch.

Restaurant with Alfresco dining. Parked our car just outside, no summon auntie to worry about.

Some local drinks for the simmering heat.

Lunch of mutton rice and soup.

Chicken with gravy and rice.

Continue and drive towards Petra, an immensely popular attraction and stores linked it to the Indiana Jones movie to market their products. Purchase our 2 days entrance tickets.

Our tickets.

So we started our walking journey towards the Treasury, the representative image of Petra, hidden from the outside world amongst brown rocky hills.

Start of the long walk in.

Along the way we saw squarish blocks buildings.

Nabataean tomb.

After some 10mins of walking, we entered a path lined by 2 tall walls of rock known as the Siq. Along the way were what looked like manmade drains carved out by the local people years ago.

These looked like manmade drainage system craved into the rocky walls.

Almost 30 minutes of walking on sandy floors and the sight of the Treasury that first greeted us was awesome.

The excitement reached its peak when this came into view… Beautiful treasury of the Petra.

It was a tiring walk but well worth it. We were in awe at the intricate details of this carved in building and the sheer size of this architectural feat. We sat at the bench there just taking in the moment for quite a good amount of time.

Treasury, visited by many tourists.

The treasury was just part of the Petra archaeological park which was huge. We only noticed after we started to move further inwards and realised there wasn’t much time left as the sun began to sat. As we were intending to do Petra by night, we had to walk around quickly before the area closed for the night.

More tombs.

of different sizes…

and as huge as these.

What’s it looked on the inside.

Looked like roman architecture with the cobbled road as the sun started to set.

We had to leave the park first before reentering for the Petra by night. It was again a long walk out and we drove back to our hotel to get some quick snacks before heading back to Petra. Separate tickets were sold for the night event and there sure was quite a crowd.

Petra by night tickets.

The path was illuminated by candle lights that were left by the park staff after the sunset. These were the only light source.

There were much different walking at night except that it was cooler. The made the walking a little easier.

Hundreds of light bags on the ground in front of the treasury.

The walk ended at the treasury. We were the first few in line luckily and as we arrived into the opening, we were ushered to sit in rows on the mat, and were not too far from the performing area, served with some mint tea.

The treasury illuminated by the ground bags.

Then the show began. First there was some old flute blowing then followed by some singing. To be honest, it wasn’t really interesting. Before you knew it, it was over

The entertainers.

Then we had to walk that same distance back again. Drove back to the hotel for the night after this long day. More to explore the next day.

ziyi

A travel addict from the little red dot otherwise known as Singapore. Started blogging during travel to help the aging forgetful mind remember the experience of each destination.