The Akin's: Petra

After our evening adventure to see Petra at night, we did the full day tour. There was much more to see and we were all exhausted by the end of the day. We left our hotel at 9:30am and finished at 4:30pm. We did hire a guide for our hike/tour, which was nice to learn more about the area. We hiked down to the Treasury which was the only thing we had really seen the night before. It was rather amazing to see all the different carvings along the way that we couldn't see in the dark the evening before.

We continued on and hiked around looking at the many different tombs. In the afternoon our guide left as we decided to hike 40 minutes further up the mountain to see another famous site called The Monastery. I was very thankful for Paul carrying Micah on his back the whole way up, and I was quite proud of my Dad for climbing up the mountain only a week out of gall bladder surgery! It was worth the extra pain as we were also able to see gorgeous views of the canyons and valleys. All along the way the local Bedouin people had stands set up and were trying to sell their trinkets. In many cases their small children were there hawking the goods. The guide said that the kids were not in school as the parents wanted them to help earn money, but if the kids didn't make any profit then the parents sent them to school as punishment.

A little history of Petra...for those that care :)

At one time 35,000-40,000 Nabatean people lived in Petra (they were an ancient Arab tribe). The Nabatean people were very skilled at carving caves and sculptures from the limestone rock. The area was most active in 200 BC-200 AD. Petra was on the major trade route from India to China and the Nabateans collected tolls from the 3,000-5,000 camel caravans. This became a very prosperous area. Many different cultures affected the area and the people believed in many Gods. They at one time dominated the area from Damascus to the Sinai and Negev deserts. They eventually fell to the Roman Empire in 106 AD. As the demand for frankincense declined due to Christianity influence, the area became less in importance and fell to ruin and finally was abandoned in the 14th century. The area was rediscovered by a swiss explorer in 1812. All the local Bedouin people were moved out in 1985 so the area could be devoted to tourism.

Here are some photos from our day:

Micah getting a horse ride toward the Treasury. He was not so sure what to think at first, but ended up enjoying it...and so did his parents :)

Family pictures in the midst of the canyons...this one sort of looked like an elephant.

This was supposed to be a wedding ceremony where my Mom and Dad got married, Paul was the preacher, and Tannis and I (plus Micah) served as the witnesses.