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In Jordan, a ‘stunning’ discovery under Petra’s ancient stone

(www.nytimes.com)
79 points aguaviva | 2 comments | 14 Oct 24 18:46 UTC | HN request time: 0.385s | source
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noneeeed ◴[15 Oct 24 21:19 UTC] No.41853233[source]▶
For anyone thinking of visitng Petra, try and allow more than a couple of hours. When we went it was for two days, going in and out each day. A lot of people just go down the entry canyon, take a look at the Treasury (the bit in Indiana Jones) and head back. But the site itself is much larger. If you are up for a decent walk there are parts that I thought were much more impressive and interesting up the hills. Some of the scenary around there is stunning.

Also, if you can do down in the evening, that's great too.

Jordan as a whole was a really interesting place to visit.

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1. simple10 ◴[16 Oct 24 01:28 UTC] No.41854767[source]▶
If you go, I can't recommended enough to hike in to Petra from Little Petra (Siq al-Barid). Little Petra is a small caravan stop about 8km away. The hike brings you in through the backside of Petra near the Monastery.

Also explore up the stairs carved in the rocks in Petra. They're somewhat hidden and most tourists do not venture up them. They lead to a sort of rock maze on top of the cliffs overlooking Petra with incredible views. I accidentally got lost up there at dusk and ended up hiking out the Al Siq canyon alone in the dark. It was unlike anything I had ever experienced. The stars and subtle desert night sounds felt like I had entered a time machine. One of those deeply transformative experiences that only occurs when venturing off the beaten path. Fortunately, the guards at the entrance were cool with my accidental trespassing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Petra

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2. roelschroeven ◴[16 Oct 24 09:42 UTC] No.41857228[source]▶
When you hike in through the backside like that, is there a place where you buy a ticket and/or are scanned for tickets?

When I was there, we went through the official entrance in Wadi Musa, with tickets and all (which I don't mind!). We went early to have the time to make quite a large tour around the whole area, and as far as I could tell it looked like the area was simply open for anyone to hike in or out freely, except through the front entrance. As I said, I don't have any problem with buying a ticket, I'm just wondering if my observations are correct.