sinna helooa ya jamil
So, Petra was fun. I saw the two most popular sites: the treasury and the monastery.
The treasury is the most easily accessible monument, and the most famous.
We walked here with a guide who told us a little about the Nabatean people who lived here and the discovery of Petra. In the early eighteen hundreds, a Swiss explorer named Jean Louis Burckhardt studied Arabic at Cambridge and later in Syria after buying a house there. Then, he changed his name and disguised himself as a local, hiring someone to take him to Aaron's tomb so he could sacrifice a goat-but really, he was looking for the lost ancient city. He couldn't look too closely into Petra, because his interest would blow his cover, but still, he found the location of a city that was previously just a rumor.
At the treasury there were men selling camel rides, but sadly, touching any animal is against program rules. I thought the camels were so cute, I probably took more pictures of them than of the ancient ruins!
Then, we were set loose for three hours and my friends and I decided to walk 800 steps up a mountain to the monastery. I exhibited an incredible amount of self control when I turned down the Bedouins' offers to ride their donkeys. They'd ride up to us and say, "Take a taxi! Donkey ride, all the way up the mountain! I give you good price!" I was so exhausted I almost gave up, but once I arrived, I was so glad I stuck with it.
The monastery is even bigger than the treasury.
There are so many other sites at Petra and I really want to come back and see them and learn more about their history. This trip has made me want to become an archaeologist!
The day after Petra, we went to two old churches built on Byzantine ruins and to Mount Nebo.
The first church, The Church of St. John The Baptist, had tunnels underneath it from the Byzantine period with a well from the Moabites. Also under the church were memorials for John the Baptist and beautiful mosaics. I didn't take many pictures because it was so dark, but it was really cool!
I got to play the organ, although I had never touched an organ before, and like Arabic, the music notes were written from right to left.
The next church we went to was the Church of St. George, which houses the oldest surviving mosaic map of Palestine.
Finally, we went to Mt. Nebo and looked over the Promised Land. There was a museum with Byzantine mosaics and a beautiful church.
Yesterday was my birthday, and our crazy bus driver bought me a cake as well as some bread (?). Then, that evening, we were brought to a restaurant where 30 of our relatives were celebrating the upcoming wedding. They bought a cake for me and sang the Arabic "Happy Birthday" song: sinna helooa ya jamil (Have a nice year, beautiful)