Petra

 We are in Petra, Jordan.  Specifically to see the Petra rock carvings. We have all day to do that, so we take our time and start over at 8AM.

The first thing you see, after crossing the street, and passing by the Museum and the visitor center and all the little shops, is the Djinn Blocks.

These are simple enough — just rectangular solid blocks.  And you start to see holes “caves” carved into the stone.

But even that is still pretty simple.  Then you turn the corner and see the Obilisk Temple.

And that is just in a different class altogether.

But you continue walking to the Syk.  And that is pretty special.

The Syk is a slot canyon — a really tall, really narrow canyon.  The guide said it was the result of a crack in the rocks due to an earthquake that cracked and separated the walls, but it could also just be the result of erosion in my mind.  Apparently we have similar things in Zion National Park, and maybe the Arches. (Add a trip to those to to my To Do list.)

And it goes on for a long time.  The “floor” of the canyon was originally sand, but the Roman’s added paving stones, and Jordan has overlaid most of those with a rough concrete mix.  So you walk on for a fair distance, marveling at the stone walls above you, and then 

The Treasury, which is believed to be a tomb. Cut into the rock wall opposite the end of the Syk. And these sorts of wonders just keep going on.  Further on down are what all called the Royal Tombs.

And from up in the Royal Tombs, you can look down the road to see other rock carved temples and tombs; they are just everywhere!

There are more modest dwellings at ground level like

And you can go in that and wonder around.

But after 7 hours of walking around looking at both the natural wonders of the rock and the man made wonders of the rock carvings, we went back to civilization, retracing our steps up the Syk.  There is a pretty good museum of the history and examples at the beginning — the Petra Museum.