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Petra - part 3 of 1 2 3
Published 01/10/2001
And there are other special memories: the range of colours on the excavated rock in some of the tombs. At first sight seemingly painted on but a closer inspection revealed the colours to be the different hues of sand that formed the rock. Rather like those souvenir bottles of sand one used to be able to buy at some British sea-side resorts.
Another memory was of standing in the cavernous Urn Tomb, with the acoustics of a concert hall, listening to Anne ( an Australian member of the party ) with her beautiful soprano voice filling it with delicious sound. Or, again scrambling with eight of the others up the mountainous side of Umm el Biyarah; sweating in the early afternoon heat but at the top gazing out in every direction on the stark, dry mountains that surround Petra. And, returning through the ruins, seeing the rock suffused with the browns and reds and golds of the late afternoon sun.
Such a place is Petra . Even writing about it one is forced into the use of the cliched phrase. But Petra itself is no cliche; indeed, it is truly unique. I was reminded of this, a few weeks later, when I was standing in a large news agent's in Liverpool. I happened to overhear part of a conversation between two women; obviously discussing next year's holiday plans. One was saying '.... and we'd been asked to go to Jordan. But we'd have had to go around some old place called Petra and we just wanted to flake out on the beach. And I'd been told that the beaches in Jordan are terrible so we said we wouldn't go .....'.
I turned away, thinking ( perhaps uncharitably ) that had she gone she would probably have turned back after seeing the Treasury, anyway. But I had to admit that I agreed with one of her assertions: the beaches in Jordan are not very good, although the desert is magnificent. But that's another story.
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1st Published 01/10/2001
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