RANSVESTIA

in this valley and there were no structures "built" on the ground. They were all carved out of the soft sandstone of the hills both private homes of the ordinary and "palaces" of the rich and the civic buildings as well. The narrow defile through which we had come was easily defended and on inquiry I learned that the exit from this valley on the west side was equally defensible. It seemed that this remarkable place lay directly astride the only feasible caravan route from the eastern lands through the mountains and eventually on towards the valley of the Jordan River and ultimately the shore of the Mediterranean. Thus the inhabitants of Petra exacted tribute from all caravans passing thru. This made the city wealthy for many decades. Eventually the Romans found other routes and thus cut off the city's source of revenue.

After our return ride up the canyon we got back in the bus and drove the rest of the afternoon down to Aquaba on the Gulf of Aquaba. As you will recall from the map this Jordanian city is just around the edge of the bay from Eilat in Israel. Both cities are the southern ports of their respec- tive countries since the gulf of Aquaba opens into the Persian gulf and thus into the Indian Ocean, so there is much going on in the areas - oil storage tank farms, pipelines, shipping and hotel-resort building. Just to say that I'd taken a swim in the Red Sea I pulled out my suit and took a dip with one of the other women on the tour. It was very refreshing in the desert sun. After that we had a long repetitious bus ride back to Amman- 5 hours' worth.

The next morning we had to get up at 4:30 AM to get an early start for the Jordan-Israeli border crossing. There had been another tour of some 200 people in town too and we wanted to get to the border before them. We did and it was just as well because it was a long hot process as it was but if we'd been behind them, wow! The Israelis understandably are ex- tremely thorough in their baggage search. You and your bag are at a long table and the official unpacks it completely, I mean empties it. The bag is then sent for X-raying to be sure you haven't got a false bottom or other goodies in it and then you repack it from the bottom up one item at a time under his watchful eye. My man and many of the other people were for- mer Americans and thus spoke good English which made it a little easier. It is a slow process as one at a time you pass through a series of stops in- cluding a personal "frisking" until you step out into an open area with benches in it to wait while the rest of the tour goes through the same te- dious process. Fortunately for me, the girls in the "frisking" booth were sort of bored by it all and were not too thorough, else wise they might have discovered my secret "weapon." Considering what can be done with

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