The Lost City of Petra

Our guide explains the meaning of these carved blocks, called "god blocks." Actually the Nabateans may originally have worshipped gods in the stone itself.
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After three months, we still hadn't seen the most famous site in Jordan, the lost city of Petra.  Petra is located within a narrow canyon, similar to what we hiked through in Wadi Ghuweir.  The ancient Nabateans actually carved their buildings into the solid rock, with facades based on Greek architecture.  It is mind-boggling that they even had the idea to do this, much less spend hundreds of years carving out the solid sandstone.  We say its their city, but the portion that we marvel at is really a city of the dead; most of the "buildings" are really tombs, perhaps some are temples, but the Nabateans didn't live in them.

Walking down the Siq (narrow canyon) you get the first glimpse of the Treasury Building.
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After walking a few miles into the canyon, we trekked up 800 steps to the "High Place of Sacrifice," literally on the highest hill.  It was worth it to see the altar carved out of solid rock, with drainage channel cut beneath it to draw the blood towards the altar of the god.  There is evidence for human sacrifice here.

treekking to the High Place of Sacrifice

We then went down into the expanded canyon where the Roman established their city.  Exhausted, we hired donkeys from the local Bedouin boys who had been pestering us for an hour with "taxi" "taxi"    The donkeys were precious.

The stupendous facade of the Treasury, which probably was a Royal Tomb or a Temple. Its decorated in Greek Classical style, with religious symbols from Greek, Assyrian, Babylonian, and Egyptian religions.
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By the way, we stayed at the Movenpick Petra Resort which usually is fantastic, but the rooms were pretty shabby and the food was a disaster.  I'd try elsewhere for accommodations.