Hikes to Remote Sights

Up to this point, particularly if you’re visiting Petra during the peak spring and fall seasons, you’ll have shared this splendor with a drove of peregrinating shutterbugs. Many people, content with daytrip dosage, will go home raving about Petra’s first 10%. But it’s only the tip of an inverted iceberg: the magnificent rest of Petra is nestled in dozens of high places scattered over a vast area. At least two days are necessary for the following seven treks and another two or three days if you venture beyond Petra proper—assuming you don’t get indulgently lost at least a few times. The Bedouin say to appreciate Petra you must stay long enough to watch your nails grow long.

The shortest and easiest of the hikes leads down the wadi to the left of and behind the Temple of the Winged lions. Fifteen minutes of strolling down the road that runs through the rich green gardens of Wadi Turktmaniya guide you to the only tomb at Petra with a Nabatean inscription. The lengthy invocation above the entrance beseeches the god Dushara to safeguard the tomb and to protect its contents from violation. Unfortunately, Dushara took an interminable sabbatical and the chamber has been stripped bare.

A second, more interesting climb begins at the end of the road that descends from the Pharaoh’s Penis to the cliff face, a few hundred meters left of the museum. The trail dribbles up to the Qasr Habis (Crusader Castle), outclassed by many of Petra’s other splendors. The steps have been recently restored and the climb to the top and back takes well under an hour.