Petra: Candlelight, Red Stone and the Long Way Through

A verse from Numbers about a difficult road around Edom was in my mind as we approached Petra. Biblical geography is not a precise itinerary for our modern route, but it gave the surrounding mountains another layer of meaning for me.

We checked into a Marriott hotel high above the ancient city, reached by a steep road. After dinner we drove about seven minutes to the entrance for Petra by Night. Tickets were available there during our visit. We walked roughly two kilometers into the Siq, following candles between narrowing rock walls. Around the last bend, the canyon opened and the Treasury appeared in warm light.

The music and projections began at about nine. The performance was brief, but the approach through the dark canyon and that first sight of the facade made the evening memorable.

The next morning we chose a different route. A shuttle took us from the visitor center toward the high side of the site, and we hired two donkeys for the steep approach to the Monastery. We agreed on 40 Jordanian dinars for the two of us. The animals knew the path, but on the descent they came so close to the cliff edge that I held my breath. Their calm footing made me think, for a moment, of the biblical image of Jesus entering Jerusalem on a donkey.

From a viewpoint opposite the Monastery, sunlight brought out the scale and soft color of its enormous rock-cut facade. The handlers later asked for 80 dinars rather than the 40 we had understood. Because they had brought us through safely, we paid the agreed amount plus a 40-dinar tip, 80 in all. The experience reminded us to confirm both price and route clearly before setting off.

Walking downhill through Petra’s center, we passed a Byzantine church with traces of mosaic, a theater carved into the rock, and tombs cut high into the cliffs. The Treasury is the famous image, but the city’s achievement is larger: buildings and rooms shaped from the red mountains themselves. I thought again of Edom and of the long journeys described in the Hebrew Bible, while recognizing that the archaeology of Petra tells a distinct Nabataean story.

By the time the light turned the canyon gold, our legs were tired. The night visit had given us drama; the daytime route had revealed a city. Together they made Petra feel much more expansive than the single photograph I had known before arriving.