Day 5 How does this exist

 I'm sorry but I'm too tired to put these pictures in order.  I'll just explain them as I go.  One thing to know, if you've ever seen a picture of Petra, you've never seen much of Petra.  It is a huge place.  We woke up at 5:00 AM, at a quick breakfast at 6:00 and were at the gate by 6:20.  The point is, once it gets to be about 10:00, there is no more shade. And even though it only got to be about 87 degrees, it's about as hot as I've ever felt.  It also gets crazy crowded at the first thing which is what we've all seen, the Treasury.  In fact, by the end of the day it's a zoo.  But we had the place practically to ourselves. 

This is Rebecca at the monestary which is one of the last sights.  It's 900 steps up from the valley.  You basically are walking steps (and that word is used loosely for a lot of it) for an hour and a half.  It's a larger structure than the Treasury and in some ways more impressive.  As with everything else, it defies imagination how it was carved.  

These two pictures are for perspective.

We thought this sign was funny but it also shows some of the steps up.

Trust me, I'm the one that asked for the break in the shade.

We stopped with about 20 minutes left to the top because this guy had a fan!  We also bought some juice and water from him.  We talked to him for about 20 minutes and it was fascinating. He grew up in a cave.  His mother still lives in a cave and the night before he stayed at a friends cave.  He used to have a shop in the bazarre near the Duomo in Florence but when the recession hit in 2008 he wasn't making money so he moved back.  He lives in the town with his wife and 5 children but often prefers the cave. We stopped again on the way down and had some more juice and he told us more stories.  He keeps seven goats who come down at night to be fed.  While we were there a 12 year old boy brought a donkey up with 2 huge things of water for Yussef to give the goats.  It cost him 5 dinar for the delivery.  Since it's the low season, a donkey ride to the monestary was going for about 10.

I called this, pillars are us!

Between the mountains, there are ruins.  Theyr'e pretty spectacular and as always, you can climb all over them.

We went into some of the carved buildings where you could see how the stone was coverd.

We had heard about a place you could climb for a look over the Treasury.  There are several of them but we had read that this one took the least amount of time.  Ultimately, a bedouin young man charged us 10 dinar to take us there.  

It's hard not to include every picture and video we took, and we took a lot.  I think it's easily the most amazing man made thing we've ever seen by a mile.  Ultimately, we walked 12.7 miles and were there more than 8 hours. For the last 4 hours there were lots of breaks to try and find shade and drink water.  In those 8 hours I drank endless bottles of water and several cans of juice and never peed. We were also rarely terribly sweaty either.  It just all evaporated.  By the end, at the Treasury it was nuts.  And walking out, we were in constant danger of being run over by a wagon or other vehicle.  

Every day of this trip seemed to almost outdo the day before, and as I write this, on our last night, it kept being true.  But Petra was the reason we came and it didn't disappoint.  I read that a lot of people consider it mankind's single greatest artistic achievement and it's hard not to agree.  The fact that it still exists in the condition it does, after 1700 years or so boggles the mind.  My mind is officially boggled.

Hopefully I will have the energy to write about Day 6 cause it was a doozy but we'll see.  In the meantime, Day 5 was incredible.  And so was the epic shower after!