Petra, Jordan

Petra

A city you enter through a crack in the rock.

Rose sandstone, cut by hand some two thousand years ago, and kept behind a kilometre of gorge. By private arrangement.

The Treasury from the Siq, Petra

Season: March to May, September to November
Length: Around six days
Party: Two to eight, with your own guide
Held in the arrangement: Two full days in Petra, a night under canvas in Wadi Rum, your own guide and driver, and the early and late hours

The place

Nothing here was built. It was cut out of the cliff, and the cliff was left standing around it.

Some two thousand years ago the Nabataeans grew rich on the caravan roads and made their capital where nobody would stumble on it: a basin in the mountains, reached through a gorge only a few paces wide.

Then, for centuries, the outside world forgot the way. The stone is still pale at first light, rose by noon and deep red by evening. And the way in is still the same.

A wide basin of pale rose rock seen between two weathered sandstone bluffs, ridge after ridge fading into haze under a pale sky — The mountains around Petra

The days

A single walker, small on the pale sand floor of the Siq, between dark curving sandstone walls many times their height, one wall lit orange from above — Walking the Siq, Petra

First morning

You go in on foot, while the gorge is still in shadow.

The Siq runs for about a kilometre. The walls lean in until the sky is a ribbon, and your footsteps come back to you a moment late. Nobody tells you how far is left.

The last bend Then a line too straight to be rock. A column. The corner of a doorway. Then all of it at once. Walk the Siq, and part the dark yourself. The Treasury appears, Petra

Walk the Siq

The Treasury

Forty metres of carved stone, and you at the foot of it.

Al-Khazneh. Columns, pediments and figures worn soft by two thousand years, all of one piece with the cliff behind them. You will stand there longer than you meant to, getting smaller.

The Treasury seen at an angle from below: two storeys of rose sandstone columns and a round carved urn at the top, framed by the rough cliff it was cut from — The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, Petra

If this is the one, tell us when

The Monastery at Petra: a broad two-storey facade with a round central urn, cut from a pale gold cliff under a clear sky, a tiny figure at its foot — The Monastery, Ad Deir, Petra

The days after

The Treasury is only the front door.

Beyond it the valley opens: tombs stacked up the cliffs, a theatre cut into the hillside, a street of fallen columns. There is time to wander it without a list. And one morning, early, some eight hundred steps cut in the rock take you up to the Monastery, which is larger than the Treasury and far quieter.

The Treasury after dark, glowing red, with rows of candles on the ground in front of it

After dark The same walk, by candlelight. On the evenings it is held, the way in is lined with candles, and the Treasury glows above them. Go back in after dark The Treasury by candlelight, Petra

Then the walls fall away.

South

Wadi Rum is under two hours down the road and another country altogether: red sand, sandstone towers, and a horizon at last. You arrive for sunset and stay for the stars.

The sun going down behind dark sandstone hills across an open plain of rippled sand, the whole sky orange, one person sitting small on the sand — Sunset in Wadi Rum, Jordan

That is the shape of it: about six days, two of them inside Petra, one night in the open desert. The plan is drawn with you.

Plan your journey

Where you stay

Close enough to walk in before breakfast.

In Wadi Musa, the town at the gate, you stay a short walk from the entrance, so the first light and the last are yours. In Wadi Rum it is a tent with a proper bed, a lamp, and the desert outside the flap. Both are chosen with you.

What you remember is the evening. Cushions on a rug, tea poured sweet and hot, and a quiet so wide you lower your voice.

Looked after by someone who knows the hours.

Your guide knows when the Siq is empty, which hour turns the Treasury rose, and where to sit while it happens. A car is waiting when you have walked enough. And nobody hurries you.

Sandstone seen close: flowing bands of rose, cream and rust, worn smooth — Banded sandstone, Petra

Field notesThe figures, for those who like them.

Daylight there today
Daylight in the middle of April
Daylight in the middle of October
Petra: 30°19′N 035°29′E
The Siq: About 1.2 km
The Treasury: About 40 m high
Petra to Wadi Rum: About 100 km south

Walk the Siq Choose your season

The Treasury at Petra glimpsed at the end of the Siq, its carved facade lit between dark sandstone walls, two walkers small at its foot

Your invitation

Will you walk in?

March to May for mild days and cool nights. September to November for warm light, with the heat gone.

Plan your journey

Eight short questions, about two minutes. Then a letter in your own words.

The Treasury from the Siq, Petra