Amman would have been one but Petra certainly was one of the more important capitals back then. Today we visited Petra, the aptly christened Red Rose City with buildings (tombs mostly of all descriptions: from simple burial sites to mausoleums for royals) and temples and shops and of course dwellings; all carved out of the side of the multi-hued mountains in this magnificent canyon.
The nearly 6 hour walk we had here (from 7 to 1pm) reminded us of at least 3 other places. The most recent is our trip last year to Matera which also featured cave dwellings and innovative water cistern management systems plus being a well used movie location. Then of course we saw similar rock hewn buildings in Mogu, China back in 2019. Then 8 years ago, we were in Peru at another UNESCO world heritage site of Machu Pichu and not just because of the monumental stone- work there but also a shared history of an 18th/19th century re-discovery by European explorers.
Petra had all of these and a bit more and a bit less.
More because it is perhaps the oldest and best preserved. Mogu's art paintings have been vandalised, for example. More because it is intricately made, whereas Matera are more about inventive negative architecture. More because it is much older perhaps a millenia or so older than Machu Pichu. And more also because walking through it was really like walking back in time because they did nor overdevelop this place and left the local culture to organically coexist so the hike is complete with Bedouin folks including kids in your face (for just the right amount).
But it is also less. Because all the other places I mentioned above have been better managed especially to benefit the local community. A telling case in point: it took the government a century after the rediscovery of Petra to develop it into a economic tourism activity whereas Machu Pichu was developed shortly after its rediscovery.
Petra not only has a far longer but also far richer history. So there was so much more that could have been extolled. In the iron age between 1200 and 600BC, t was the home of the Edomites (the Ammonites lived in Amman in the north). The Edomites are supposed to be descendants of Esau and Petra was a natural water catchment area given its configuration of mountains. This made Petra a stopping ground for merchants even back in biblical times. Then one of the nomadic Bedouin tribes that roamed the Arabian desert, the Nabateans emerged and used their knowledge of the terrain to see of their enemies. They were particularly skilful in harvesting rainwater, agriculture and stone carving (and ample evidence of all three are still seen today). They established Petra as the capital of Nabatean empire and it was believed to be one of the richest cities esp with all the spice and fragrance trade that centred there. Its importance started to decline when the Romans colonised it and as sea routes started to emerge. So much history and I should add that the Petra Museum was indeed well done though nothing like how the Qataris did in the National Museum of Qatar despite their far more limited history. Incidentally, Doha probably benefited from the growing sea trade and its ironical that I am coming from and going to Doha in this trip.
Back to present day, here I am, literally sleeping under the stars in the Wadi Rum desert, just south of Petra. Well, there is a bubble tent next to me with running hot water (though it strangely decided not to work for D... even the water system here follows the male chauvinistic culture here 😀) but I decided to have the camp lay out a bed outside. It's a cool 18°c and my ears are soothed by the Arabic music wafting from the musician entertaining guests in the main tent and the sweet scent of sisha permeates the air. What a life!
Tomorrow, we are going to have a jeep drive in the desert and see sights that first captivated Lawrence of Arabia. Its a sunrise drive and so we have to be up really early.
No comments:
Post a Comment