Practical Information

The tourist police munch on cigar ends at the Petra Visitors Center (tel. 83 060; open Sat.-Thurs. 7:30am-7pm, Fri. 7:3Oam-lpm), where you can hire an official guide for a “low tour'’ of the city center

t0 form a group of your own. The various guidebooks available at the visitors center ” are helpful, but there’s no substitute for the expertise of an official guide for trips to the more remote sites of Al-Barid or Al-Madras. On the other side of the visitors center are the Rest House and the swinging gate marking the beginning of the trail down to the siq. You can rent a horse for the short ride (JD4.5O0, price expected to increase to JD7.500 in Oct. 1993), but it’s more interesting to walk, admiring the tower cliffs of Jabal Khubtha to the right, Jabal Madras to the left, and the monuments you come upon every few meters.