Transvestia

its reputation of the night before as a clean, functional city thougn ob- viously not a large one. Jordan isn't that big. We had a long drive through the countryside which is arid, rocky and hilly. We passed lots of herds of sheep, goats and occasionally camels which the camera nuts in our tour had to stop and take pictures of. Eventually we turned off of the main road toward the mountains and wound up a canyon with orchards and more greenery than we'd seen previously. Eventually at the crest we came to Moses' well where the early Hebrews stopped during their wanderings in the desert. I think it was here that they got their first view of the Prom- ised Land. Of course their land in those days wasn't limited by the present borders of Israel. We then descended the other side of the ridge for a few miles and came to a hotel whose dining room was literally a hole in the wall. It was a good sized hole, being a cave, and therefore relatively cool. After a refreshing lunch we were ready for Petra. We walked to the back of the hotel where a lot of horses had been assembled and we all "mounted up" and took off down the trail. This was quite an experience for some who had done no previous horseback riding. We weren't on our own tho as an Arab walked in front of each horse leading it down the trail. I guess the total walk was about 1 and 1/2 miles and they do it twice a day when there are enough tourists.

Shortly after leaving the mounting area we entered the "canyon.” This was a narrow defile ranging from 20 to 40 feet in width with sheer high walls several hundred feet high. Carved into the side of the sandstone walls was a slot which in early times had been an aqueduct carrying water from Moses' well all the way down the canyon to the city of Petra. It was very well engineered following the contour of the canyon walls and where there was a notch or a big crack a pipe had been utilized lying on top of a rock bridge to span the opening. After about a half hour ride we suddenly rounded a turn for the most unexpected sight of the whole trip. The nar- row canyon suddenly opened into another canyon and there right across from us about a hundred feet away was the front of what looked like the National Bank. In fact it was called the "Treasury." It had the tall columns in front, the horizontal facing across the tops of the columns and the flat triangular facade above that in the most classical fashion. Then you walked thru the entrance between and behind the pillars into a colossal room that must have been 40 feet high and 50 wide. All of this carved right out of the side of the mountain, pillars and all. It was an amazing sight.

After a rest and exploration of this monument we mounted up and rode on further into the city of Petra. I can't take the space to describe all of this amazing place but at one time something like 50,000 people lived

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