Petra day 2

So when our guide met us the next morning, he said he had been trying to figure out what he was going to do with us, after Steve had sent him a selfie of us at the Monastery the day before. I knew there were several trails I wanted to explore, so I was pretty sure we’d see a lot and stay busy.

On our way through the Siq again, he pointed out the remains of a carving of a man and a camel…

… as well as 2 camels:

Seeing the sights in different light was pretty neat (this was about 0730):

Forgive the slight blurriness of the next picture, but it’s the only one I have that shows where the current level of the “street” is, and what may still be hidden.

Many of the tombs were topped with a double staircase, signifying going up and coming down from the heavens:

“You want me to go where?”

Our first big hike was up to the High Place of Sacrifice, along gorgeous multicolored walls again -

Looking down on the Royal Tombs…

… and in more detail -

In the picture above, you can see a person for scale in the bottom right corner. You can also see the double staircases adorning the tops of the tombs.

A bird’s eye view of the valley and part of the complex:

The Theater could seat 8500, and again, was carved, not built.

Inside a tomb, you could see amazingly straight lines…

…on enormous scale (remember, carved by hand).

More beautiful colors -

A Byzantine church was built in Petra in the fifth century AD, and the mosaics on the floor are well preserved -

I loved the color of the columns from the “blue church” (the stone is blue Egyptian granite) -

As we left for the last time, the Treasury had yet a different lighting around noon -