The High Place

One of the most popular hikes is the circular route to the High Place on Jabal al-Madbah, a place of sacrifice with a full view of Petra. A staircase sliced in the rock leads to the left just as the Roman Theater comes into view. Follow the right prong when the trail levels and forks at the top of the stairs. On the left, Obelisk Ridge presents one obelisk to Dushara and another to ARlzza. On the peak to the right, the Great High Place supports a string of grisly sights: two neatly cut altars, an ablution cistern, gutters for draining away sacrificial blood, and cliff-hewn bleachers for a delightfully unobstructed view of the slaughter.

To mollify frazzled nerves, head downhill past the Pepsi stand, leaving the obelisks behind you, and backtrack under the western face of the Great High Place. If you hunt around you’ll find a staircase leading down to a sculptured Lion Fountain. The first grotto complex beyond it is the Garden Tomb. Below it is the Tomb of the Roman Soldier and across from it a rock triclinium (teast hall), which has the only decorated interior in Petra. The trail then leads into Wadi Farasa by the Katute site, the dwelling of a merchant apparently driven away by the Romans’ nearby waste disposal site. You’ll leave the trail near the Penis. The circle, followed either way, takes about an hour and a half.