Back to Blogging - Petra

First off, I want to apologize for my extended absence from blogging. Things have been quite busy for the last few weeks, with my mom and my brother’s visit, an aunt visiting from Montreal, and spending some time with Amy’s family who were also here for her cousin’s wedding. Throw in a dash of interesting developments at Seeds of Peace and you have a recipe for blog-silence. I am sorry. I had no idea that there were so many people who looked forward to reading these entries, and I appreciate the encouragement that I have received to keep this going.

There is just too much to catch up on now, so I’ll just write about the highlight of the last few weeks for me – Petra. Amy’s parents graciously invited me to join them on a trip to Petra last week. Though you may not know what Petra is, if you have seen Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, you have seen this archeological marvel, which is featured prominently in the closing scenes. The ancient Nabataean city of Petra is over 2000 years old, located in what is now southern Jordan, with over 700 incredible tombs carved into its sandstone cliff faces.

I set out to meet Bernie and Karen (Amy’s parents), and Jodi and Michael (Amy’s sister and new fiancé – they got engaged here in Israel) in Eilat. Since I didn’t feel like spending 5 to 6 hours on a sweaty bus through the Negev desert, I decided to fly down. My ulterior motive was the desire to do some airline-industry reconnaissance on Israel’s two domestic airlines, Israir and Arkia.

On my flight, I was treated to an incredible view of the Temple Mount and the Old City of Jerusalem. It’s amazing how small it looks from 15,000 feet. It really demonstrated to me how difficult the issue of Jerusalem is. Three world religions all collide in an area barely 1 km squared. Here you can see the Dome of the Rock from the North-East.














I arrived in Eilat Wednesday evening, and we made our way into Jordan on Thursday Morning. The Wadi Arava border crossing into Jordan is 5 minutes from the beachfront strip of hotels in Eilat. No cars are permitted through the crossing, so visitors have to walk about 100 meters through “no man’s land” between the two sides. Here we are making our way to the Jordanian side of the crossing.

Before this crossing was opened (after the signing of the peace treaty in 1994), the area on either side of this walkway was a minefield, with snipers on either side.

After crossing over to the Jordanian side, we went through the process of obtaining our visas and having our passports stamped. This seemingly simple procedure took 45 minutes and three different stations. Finally, we made it through, and joined our driver/guide, Ali, for the 90 minute drive to Petra.

On the way we had a rest stop at a local souvenir shop, where I tried on a keffiyeh, an Arab headdress. There are three main styles of keffiyehs in Jordan: the plain white ones typically worn by Bedouins (and Lawrence of Arabia), the black checkered style popularized by Yassir Arafat that is representative of Palestinians (who make up over 50% of the population of Jordan), and the red checkered style that is typically worn by native Jordanians. Here I am trying on a keffiyeh with Amy’s sister Jodi.














We finally made it to Petra, passing through Wadi Mousa (Valley of Moses), a town that derives its drinking water from a spring purportedly created when Moses hit a rock with his staff (disobeying God, who told him to talk to the rock, as the story goes). The nearby hills are also said to contain the tomb of Aaron – Moses’ brother and high-priest of the Israelites.

Petra is incredible. As we walked through the natural gorge that was the main entrance to the city, we could see dozens of niches carved into the stone, where idols once stood. Along the walls, a carved trough would have carried water into the town. After a little more than a kilometer of walking, I caught a glimpse of the jewel of Petra through the crack of the gorge.

The Treasury is the best preserved ruin at Petra. It was actually a tomb for some members of the Nabataean royal family. It was given the name “The Treasury” because locals believed that this structure had had been built by an Egyptian Pharaoh in order to hide his treasure. It was this belief that partly led to Petra being lost to the Western world, as locals believed it was sacred and wished to protect the treasures from foreign hands. When the Swiss explorer, Johann Ludwig Burkhardt came to Petra disguised as a Muslim going on a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1812, he was the first European to visit the site in over 400 years.

We continued our tour though the ruins and had lunch at a rest stop located at the end of the gorge. After lunch, the hike back through the gorge was daunting, so we opted instead to ride donkeys up the hill to a neighbouring town, where Ali picked us up. I had never ridden a donkey before, and I was a little nervous, but I was able to snap one picture:














On the way back into Israel, we passed through a building called the Yitzhak Rabin Border Crossing (named after the Israeli Prime Minister who signed the Peace agreement with Jordan in 1994 and the Oslo Accords in 1993). In it were dozens of pictures of Yitzhak Rabin throughout his life – as a soldier in Israel’s wars, and as one of the country’s greatest statesmen. There was one picture that I especially liked:

Here, the late Jordanian King Hussein lights a cigarette for Rabin, who was assassinated in 1995. I couldn’t help savoring the thought of these two peacemakers enjoying a light moment after signing their historic treaty. I only hope that someday everyone in the region will share in the vision of peace that these two men sought to create.

Overall, it was an incredible experience and I particularly want to thank Karen and Bernie for inviting me to join them.

Until next time,
Seth