Petra, Jordan

Today is finally our first day to tour after all the traveling yesterday. The bus ride to Petra only took 3 hours! Petra, or Selah, means rock, and Petra is known as the Rock City. Our tour guide is Michel (pronounced like the American female name "Michelle") and our bus driver is Moontheir.  We also have armed police security with us on the bus. (above, right JuneCozart, my mother, and our police security)
 
The population in Amman, Jordan is 2.5 million.  The population of Jordan is 8 million.  The dominate stone in Jordan is limestone and the majority of the buildings are made of it.  The elevation in Amman is 3,000 feet above sea level.  If you were to drive about half an hour, you would be at the Dead Sea, elevation 1,312 feet below sea level. 

Eighty percent of the land in Jordan is desert.  The main resources are: #1 tourism and archeology, #2 Phosphate mixes, #3 Agriculture.  Produce is raised in hot houses, plastic house, and they are responsible for 6-8 times more than produce outside.  There are 18 million olive trees in Jordan.  In Lebanon, there are olive trees that are 5,000 years old, and they are still producing olives. The land is vast but dirt and rock mostly. They irrigate the fields to maintain agriculture as their resource.

We saw many Bedouins, formerly known as Nomads, a term that is no longer used.  Their main income is raising livestock such as sheep, camels, goats, donkeys, and llamas.  

Last week in Jordan, it rained and snowed for five days.  They received more rainfall in these five days than they usually have in an entire year.  The last time they had this much rainfall at once was 60 years ago.

Jordan is a kingdom, and is currently ruled by King Albdullah, and Albdulla means "the servant of God".  Currently they are holding the Parliament elections.  The government is divided into 12 districts, which would be similar to US counties.  They will hold the elections on January 23, and they will be electing 120 senators. 

Military service is compulsory, required, for the men to serve for 6 months.  It used to be three years of required service, but in 1958 it was changed and only required two years of service. In 1991 it changed again and did not require ANY services.  After 16 years, the king decided that the mandatory
service was again needed, and now requires men to serve a minimum of six months in the army. It is not required for women to serve, but 11% of the Jordanian army are women. 

               Jordanian School to the right, notice the snow. 
The schools in Jordan are mostly private schools, Christian schools.  They are expensive, but there is government schools that are free.  It is compulsory, mandatory, that children attend school for nine years, but after the nine years, it is no longer mandatory.  They begin school at the age of five and most will go for twelve years of schooling, and then go to colleges and universities.  There are 36 universities in Jordan, both public and private.  60% of the population  Jordan are under 20 years of age.  Thousands of students come to Jordan from other countries to finish their education.  Jordan has the highest number of educated people in the Arab Nation.    



(Left, Patty Goudy, Michel, and Jennifer Eller)



          The Obelisk Tomb
         (Right, Jennifer Eller)

The tour allowed us 3 hours to tour Petra. We ended up taking four and a half hours, but our guide and bus driver were quite patient with us. In order to see all of the Petra site that has been excavated, you would need a whole week. With the time allotted  us, we saw less then 15%. The percentage we were able to see though was spectacular! Amazing rock formations with evidence of the different minerals in the stones made them a very pleasing site to see.

(left - facades
There were many tombs we could see from the path. The outside of tombs are called facades, and there are 1,200 facades excavated, and many more yet to be exposed.  Horses or horse drawn carriages were available to ride to and from the bottom of Petra (for a price), which was about a 1.25 mile hike. You had to be cautious though, the carriages moved quickly and the path was quite narrow. Petra's main claim to fame is from the movie Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Even though only approximately the last 15 minutes of the movie was actually filmed in Petra at the Treasury site, it still increased tourism to the site after the movie was released. 

Bab Al Sig
'Bab' is Arabic for gateway and the Sig is the gorge that leads to the ancient city. To the right is one of the beautiful views we saw on the walk through the Sig. 




(left) The first view of the Treasury (Al Khazna). 
















We walked all the way down so we could see all of the things you would miss on horseback or carriage. It was well worth the walk. We did ride camels part of the way on the return, and walked some, and then a horseback ride to the top! Perfect end of the tour for today!

(Above)
Renee Goddard and Jennifer Eller

(Right) Jennifer Eller and Renee Goddard on camels, June Cozart leading one



(Below) Jennifer Eller at the Treasury.  (Below right) Renee Goddard, Jennifer Eller, and June Cozart.