Aqaba, Jordan

We woke up early this morning and had breakfast in the Lido Café. Unlike yesterday, the Café was not too busy even though a fair number of passengers are on full day tours today. Since those passengers who were on yesterday’s tour of Luxor did not arrive back to the ship until around
8:45 PM last evening, and had to eat a late dinner on the ship, we suspect that some decided to sleep in a little later this morning.

The ship arrived to the port of call of Aqaba, Jordan on schedule at 8:00 AM. Aqaba is the waterway to the Red Sea and is a commercial seaport. Aqaba has sandy beaches and coral reefs, which are considered the most pristine on the Red Sea, and Jordan is hoping to preserve them through careful planning. This seaport has several nice hotels, restaurants, and shops and also caters to a tourist market, particularly attracting visitors from other Middle East and European countries.

From the pier one can see Israel and Egypt just across the water. On the opposite side of the pier Saudi Arabia is just across the nearby mountain range.

As we mentioned in yesterday’s Blog, we decided to take a private excursion in this port of call. This is the first time we have booked a private excursion through Crystal. This excursion included a driver along with an English-speaking guide for our tour of Petra. We thought this would be a nice way to see Petra.

We met out on the pier at 8:30 this morning and we left the area about twenty minutes later. Our drive to Petra took approximately one hour and forty-five minutes including a short stop to take some pictures. First we drove through Aqaba, which as we mentioned is a very beautiful seaport. About a mile outside of town the area became quite mountainous in a desert like setting. While the southern portion of Jordan is very much mountainous with desert throughout, the Northern part of Jordan is very green with large forests along with quite a bit of agriculture. On our way to Petra we passed by several small towns.

Petra is a 2,000 year-old concealed city. Petra represents the legacy of the Nabataeans, an industrious people, who dominated the trade routes of ancient Arabia.

Once we arrived at Petra our exploration began almost immediately. Our tour guide described to us what we would see. We each mounted horses for about a three quarters of a mile ride along a pathway. We then walked with the tour guide as he told us about the history of Petra and pointed out various sites to us along they way. Portions of the pathway contained the original stone. He also pointed out various items on the walls on each side of the pathway. At one point the pathway gets quite narrow and eventually we came to the area where we could see the famous monument, which is the Treasury. The impressive, ornate façade of this temple was carved directly from a sheet of rock. We spent about fifteen minutes walking around the treasury and then we met back up with the guide so he could tell us all about this area along with some of the adjacent areas.

We continued our walk of another couple of miles while passing by an outdoor theatre and various temples and many tombs. Our tour guide is now an archeologist and shared quite a bit of information regarding what they continue to uncover throughout Petra. He was born in this area and he initially lived in a cave with his family. Today, he lives in a nearby village but there are still ten families who live in the caves. There were many local people who work in this area. Some drive horse drawn carriages that take visitors back and forth from the front entranceway through the lost city of Petra. Others take visitors through this enchanted area on horses and camels. Still others sell various arts and crafts. Our guide introduced us to a woman who knew him since he was six years old and also had lived in a cave with her late husband. Recently, she has written a book about being married to a Bedouin and we decided to purchase a copy of this book so that we could learn more about the culture of the Petra Bedouin.

We are truly amazed at what we saw of this ancient city. Later this year the revised list of the Seven Wonders of the World will be released and there is a strong possibility that Petra will make this list. It is truly an amazing place and we will remember this day and what we have seen for the rest of our lives.

Our thanks go out to Nancy who several months ago had highly recommended that we visit this very special place. We highly recommend this tour to anyone who visits this area of the world.

This is the first time that Crystal Cruises has stopped in Jordan in several years. In a few days we will be arriving in the Port of Ashdod, Israel, which will be the first time that Crystal has stopped there in many years as well.

We thoroughly enjoyed our tour and the information provided by both the tour guide and the driver. We learned not only about Petra but also a great deal about Jordan, its history, people and culture.

After our tour of Petra ended, we drove back to the port of Aqaba. Throughout the drive back to the ship we asked lots of questions about Jordan and the surrounding countries and truly enjoyed our conversation.

After we arrived back on the ship we freshened up and later in the evening we dined in the Silk Road Japanese Specialty Restaurant.

We are so very fortunate to have seen Petra and this ranks as one of the most impressive places we have ever visited.

Keith & Anne Marie