A few scenes from Petra

[Kyle Jones]

Here are some shots from my recent trip to Petra. Almost all of us are familiar with the Treasury (or the Al Khazneh as Alan would write) but there was a lot more to explore than I expected.

1) Just starting down the trail - I was surprised that there were things to see even before getting to the Siq proper!

2) The Siq is a darn cool slot canyon by itself!

3) The Al Khazneh or Treasury - hard to get a shot without a lot of people. Up close works...

4) I really liked these tombs (homes?) carved into the rocks. There was some nice glow off the canyon walls at this point too.

5) The Royal Tombs

6) Colonnaded Street with a broader view of the area below the Treasury looking back up toward the Royal Tombs

7) The Theater and some more tombs/dwellings carved into the rock above it

8) The view looking down on the Treasure and the path beyond it to the Theater in the background. The hike up was sketchier than I'd expected and I ended up happy having paid someone to take me up there.

9) Texting and driving - the more things change the more they stay the same...

 

[AlanLichty]

Nice to see the old place again - although it has certainly been made more tourist friendly than it used to be. Hard to expect it to not be in the 40 years that have passed since the last summer I worked there. I like the way the place looks during the winter months with a bit of green showing. I suspect that there are also more low plants growing there now since they removed the B'dul Bedouin and their goats from the inside of the park. The only plants that were visible before that were things that the goats wouldn't eat. The greenery along the wadi in the shot of the colonnaded street especially. You were quite close to the temple structure I worked on when you took that shot (Temple of the Winged Lions - off to your left behind you on top of the hill).

The road leading from Wadi Musa into the Siq used to be just a simple trail in the 1970's instead of the stone lined road in the first image. While this is the primary entrance in modern times it is actually the case that the original caravan road came into Petra from the south in between the colonnaded street and the Qasr al-Bint. The road north went through Wadi Turkmaniya. The Siq itself was primarily the path for water flowing into the city.

You did well to pay for a guide to get up above the Khazneh - I have explored a lot of the small canyons above the Siq and have seen more than a few box canyons that could get you into unworkable situations once you leave the modern paths and start following the Nabataean trails.

Thanks for posting these.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Great stuff Kyle. That forth image made me think of a haunted house.

 

[JimFox]

Wow.... amazing views Kyle. You have posted some really cool shots that really opened up my view and thoughts of it. There is definitely a lot more to shoot then meets then eye from back here in the states. I didn't realize that area was so wide open. Because of the common view of it, I thought it was a very tight almost claustrophobic area.

These are impressive.

 

[JimFox]

Nice to see the old place again - although it has certainly been made more tourist friendly than it used to be. Hard to expect it to not be in the 40 years that have passed since the last summer I worked there. I like the way the place looks during the winter months with a bit of green showing. I suspect that there are also more low plants growing there now since they removed the B'dul Bedouin and their goats from the inside of the park. The only plants that were visible before that were things that the goats wouldn't eat. The greenery along the wadi in the shot of the colonnaded street especially. You were quite close to the temple structure I worked on when you took that shot (Temple of the Winged Lions - off to your left behind you on top of the hill).

The road leading from Wadi Musa into the Siq used to be just a simple trail in the 1970's instead of the stone lined road in the first image. While this is the primary entrance in modern times it is actually the case that the original caravan road came into Petra from the south in between the colonnaded street and the Qasr al-Bint. The road north went through Wadi Turkmaniya. The Siq itself was primarily the path for water flowing into the city.

You did well to pay for a guide to get up above the Khazneh - I have explored a lot of the small canyons above the Siq and have seen more than a few box canyons that could get you into unworkable situations once you leave the modern paths and start following the Nabataean trails.

Thanks for posting these.

You really should think about going back Alan. Can you imagine taking your wife with you and sharing with her all of these places you knew from so long ago? It would also give you a chance to photograph them from a fresh new perspective. Maybe some of your old colleges are still there?

 

[AlanLichty]

You really should think about going back Alan. Can you imagine taking your wife with you and sharing with her all of these places you knew from so long ago? It would also give you a chance to photograph them from a fresh new perspective. Maybe some of your old colleges are still there?

My wife is far too familiar with what all we did over there since we were living together as graduate students at the time. She has no desire whatever to travel over to Jordan. I am honestly happy to leave my memories of living over there as just that - nice memories of some very interesting adventures I had as a young graduate student in archaeology.

My best friend and roommate for the 1976 and 1977 field seasons (Ken Russell) worked there for quite a few years starting in the 1980's but fell ill while working in Petra in 1992 and died a few days later. He is buried on an overlook near the Bedouin village to the north of the Petra park.

Two of my colleagues are still active there - David Johnson originally was working for me in 1978 as a site supervisor and is now a Professor of Anthropology at BYU running excavations in Petra at Wadi Mataha and Cynthia Finlayson who is now an Associate Professor of Anthropology also at BYU. Cynthia is running some excavations on the Ad-Deir Plateau.

 

[Mike Lewis]

Try as I might, I cannot get over my bias of preferring to NOT have people in these type of shots. So for me, I find 3 and 4 high on my list, although the great perspective in 8, along with the very small person in it really DOES also work very well.

Sure looks like a cool place, appreciate you letting me experience it!

ML

 

[Douglas Sherman]

All I can say is: WOW.

 

[Douglas Sherman]

Nice to see the old place again - although it has certainly been made more tourist friendly than it used to be. Hard to expect it to not be in the 40 years that have passed since the last summer I worked there. I like the way the place looks during the winter months with a bit of green showing. I suspect that there are also more low plants growing there now since they removed the B'dul Bedouin and their goats from the inside of the park. The only plants that were visible before that were things that the goats wouldn't eat. The greenery along the wadi in the shot of the colonnaded street especially. You were quite close to the temple structure I worked on when you took that shot (Temple of the Winged Lions - off to your left behind you on top of the hill).

The road leading from Wadi Musa into the Siq used to be just a simple trail in the 1970's instead of the stone lined road in the first image. While this is the primary entrance in modern times it is actually the case that the original caravan road came into Petra from the south in between the colonnaded street and the Qasr al-Bint. The road north went through Wadi Turkmaniya. The Siq itself was primarily the path for water flowing into the city.

You did well to pay for a guide to get up above the Khazneh - I have explored a lot of the small canyons above the Siq and have seen more than a few box canyons that could get you into unworkable situations once you leave the modern paths and start following the Nabataean trails.

Thanks for posting these.

Thanks for the perspective, Alan.

 

[Joe Colozzo]

excellent set of images Kyle. I'm always amazed by what humans were able to do before technology took over. You did well by capturing these and thanks for sharing them.

Alan, there is more to you then just the face in your avatar. It is pretty neat to see more of who you are! or were.