Jordan – Ozymandias

7/2/19 to 7/4/19 – Petra/Wadi Rum – Jordan

Crew – Solo (yes I know that sounds dangerous)

I met a traveller from an antique land,

Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;

And on the pedestal, these words appear:

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

Anyone who’s familiar with early gothic poetry/Mrs. Black’s storytime class would recognize this poem by Percy Shelley as “Ozymandias”, published in 1818 and refers to a real ancient Egyptian king statue. I also appreciate anyone who knows the name because of the comic book “Watchmen”. While you can draw out hours of analysis I want to focus on the overarching theme: A ruler who once commanded an empire and in a cruel twist the only remnant of his shattered empire was his statue and his proclamation. We’ll get back to this soon.

But first, let’s talk about the safety of the country. Yes, 95% of the population in Jordan identifies with Islam and yes Jordan considers itself an Arab country. For US travelers that sets off a lot of red flags. But Jordan has two things that set it apart from its Arab neighbors. First off the government can be considered stable, even though a monarch remains in charge of the government, and the majority of the population likes the government. This leads to a distinct lack of extremist groups compared to its neighbors. Second, Jordan lacks oil. Why does that matters in the slightest? Well, Jordan without the rich oil of its neighbors needs something to fuel its economy and over the last two decades, the country has used tourism for economic stimulation. Consequently, the government actively tries to make tourism safe. The CIA ranks every country in terms of safety to Americans each year and this year Jordan was considered safer than… the United States. Fun fact Israel was actually rated as significantly more dangerous but I was in a group of 50 with an armed security guard at nearly all times.

Of course, this wasn’t Iceland, you can still end up in a bad place. So I attempted to avoid solo taxis, stay in the tourism sites, don’t go out after dark and avoid non-government sanctioned tours. Basically what you would in LA. So after catching a 3 am bus from Tel Aviv and crossing the land border by paying the Israeli $27 and talking to Jordanian officials about where I was going, I arrived at an official world wonder, look it up. Do you believe that Sam wasn’t going to die? Good. Let’s talk about the sites.

The entire city of Petra was forgotten for centuries after 1500 AD by all but the Bedouin tribes nearby until a British archeologist rediscovered the abandoned city in 1812. Now, do you see why I made you read “Ozymandias”? There also remains remarkably little written evidence about the city inside or out. An insane idea when you consider the fact that Petra was one of if not the largest city in the area and the de facto capital of an empire for two millennia. We also know that the city did have a complex and large bureaucratic system, some of the few documents we’ve recovered detail a tax dispute over land inheritance in the judicial system hardly a simple affair, there’s not much known about the city at all. The thrill of the site to many archeologists and tourists including me comes from piecing together the city. Here’s what we know.

Petra despite being first settled 11,000 years ago has remained in remarkably good condition. Things really took off in 400 BCE when the Nabatean Kingdom rose to prominence with its kingdom based out of Petra. Before the age of the sextant and compass (1450 give or take), the only way to do long term trade between Europe, Africa, the Iberian peninsula and Asia was the Middle East. Petra was situated perfectly for this and the city had a constant flood of camel caravans of exotic people and items flooding into the city to sell, trade or resupply. Trade makes a nation rich but how rich was Petra?

That building known as the Treasury, in reality, was the tomb of a Nabatean King from the first century AD and carved directly into the stone. There’s a 2 km road into the city paved with cobblestones for trade and past the treasury an entire city carved into the stone.

I major in mechanical engineering due to my general nerdiness but I also major in archaeological anthropology (or cultural, might change) and one can reasonably infer that I’m a massive nerd for history and ancient sites. Without a doubt, Petra was one of the greatest sites I’ve ever seen.

We’re talking an entire trading city in remarkably good condition. The large religious emphasis was shown because a high point of sacrifice remains at the top of the main square up a massive mountain that was a true pain to climb although we don’t know what they sacrificed. There’s a pagan monastery at the very end of the city which I booked to the first day, 6 miles round trip and up to a mountain, that also was painful but awe-inspiring. We believe the monastery worshipped a pantheon of pagan gods that are unknown to the Western World today. We actually don’t even truly know if it was a church, it just seems like one for a variety of reasons. Moreover, you walk in from its side so you don’t see it at first and I had a classic comedy moment when I grumbled about not finding this monastery and then turning around to see a ten-story building.

One thing archeologists have also discovered was a Christian Church that became the predominant religion around 500 AD. That Church contained a goldmine of ancient documents and a remarkably intact tile flooring that I could see. Even more shockingly the tile flooring depicts animals and while they include camels, donkeys, and elephants they also include narwhals, giraffes, penguins, and tigers. These animals represent four far-away continents from Petra that show that their trade network was so widespread that some form of penguins was brought to Petra.

The list of archeological wonders goes on. The best part? Approximately only 15% of the entire city has been uncovered according to archeological reports from major universities. Case in point the town hall that was 300 feet tall, the width of a football field, and could fit 10,000 people was uncovered in 2002 by Brown University and no one knew it existed beforehand. In 2016 a team from Duke University discovered a massive temple of the sun. I do hope to work in Petra someday, if only briefly.

Jumping forward to modern times the locals in Petra were incredibly friendly. Although many asked if I wanted a horse or camel ride when I politely said no they always just nodded and went on their way, no badgering in the slightest. A married couple who was running a store on the side of the road when I was hiking to the Monastery asked me if I wanted to stop for some extra tea they had. To those of you paranoid, it was on the side of the most popular road in Petra so plenty of people and so I said yes and got to talking with them for twenty minutes. They were curious where I was from and why I came. So we swapped stories on living in Jordan and I told them a few things about living in the US because they were curious and then we parted ways after some excellent tea and despite me trying to pay, them not asking for a cent. It was the kind of encounter that you cannot imagine in San Francisco due to me being invited inside despite being a complete stranger but incredibly pleasant and one of the perks of traveling alone. You do get to meet more people.

Also on the note of modern times was the humbling lesson of Petra and Ozymandias. It did strike me at some point that the Nabatean empire once spanned trade routes across the world and the city of Petra contained amazing amounts of wealth alone yet we still know very little about the city. The ancient rulers of the city are near unknown being lost to antiquity after the discovery of the sextant that made land trade obsolete. The United States today remains the world’s sole superpower even when other countries are trying to take the mantle. But the United States has existed for 200 years. 1/10 of how long Petra claimed the throne of a major city. Yet today we don’t even study the Nabateans in the school, we know too little about their empire despite being the equivalent of a superpower for far longer than the US. Perhaps there’s a lesson there. Percy Shelley thought so at least.

After Petra, I took a day trip to Wadi Rum starting at 5 am from Petra that brought me to Jordan’s second most popular national park. I found a place to stay for the night in the Desert for $12 and they picked me up in a jeep and drove me to the camp where I could drop my stuff off. At that point, I just did assorted hikes around Wadi Rum occasionally heading back to my base camp to take a break before heading out a different direction. I was carrying upwards of 75 ounces of water with me in Wadi Rum and I still drained nearly all of it when you don’t include refills because I spent six hours walking around an actual desert and taking breaks underneath the rock formation. Amazing for sure and music definitely helps the experience but it was hiking in a sandy desert (that it turns out does have the reddish tink that makes it look like Mars) and was flat out exhausting. Probably does not help that this was my third ten-mile day in a row.

Once again I was amazed at how nice everyone was. There was a young German couple staying with me at the same desert camp who spoke good English and were very sweet while we swapped stories about visiting each other’s countries (shameless plug I wrote about Germany earlier). The guides offered free meals and endless tea for me alongside my $12 a night booking that was delicious and I just swapped stories for a few hours when I was resting at the base camp. Even the taxi driver was nice. 

The most nerve-wracking part of the trip, however, was simply going home. Normally I don’t write about going home because it’s flat out boring. But this one deserves special attention

It takes a while when crossing the land borders between Egypt, Israel, and Jordan due to a lot of steps. You have to pay the exit tax from the country you are leaving then have them check your passport. Next, you go through duty-free shops followed by security and walk to the other country. On that side they check your passport again, ask you why you are coming and give you a stamp before sending you through security a second time.

Going to Jordan? Simple enough. Coming home? Seemed simple. I walked through the Jordan side without any issues, even only paying $15 instead of $60 (because it was a holy day) for an exit tax and went through Israeli security while texting my mom “Made it through, was chill”. 

Then it all went wrong.

The first problem was when three Israeli guards asked if I could come with them and they could ask me some questions. Now I’m dumb but not idiotic so I said sure. I could also see every other person in the checkpoint, around fifty people, being shuffled off by guards into a shelter away from me. So the three Israeli guards who are pretty nice ask me why I came to Israel and if I spoke Hebrew. I say that my flight in six days departs from Tel Aviv and no. After hearing both those answers all three begin muttering in angry Hebrew to each other. Lovely.

Only improved when four more guards came out and just stared at me sitting on a bench with my Michigan hat on having a thumb war with myself. They then informed me that they were my passport was a forgery and wanted to ask a few more questions. They asked for my plane tickets, what electronics I was carrying in my suitcase, was my luggage ever alone and where I was from. After answering: my United App boarding pass, a predator laptop, only at the hotel, and San Francisco respectively they all muttered more Hebrew and then seven guards came out with assault rifles and looked at me.

Now, most people tell me they would have been terrified because they have some amount of intelligence. I was more honored because I’m definitely not John Wick and they really thought they needed seven armed guards looking at me. Don’t worry I was still nervous. So over the next 90 minutes they had me pull out of my birthright shirt to prove I went on it and then call an Israeli soldier I was on birthright with to verify. I talked about Michigan and showed them my enrollment papers on my phone. I talked about Petra and why I visited and promptly had to drop ten minutes to archeological knowledge. They thought my juggling balls were bombs and I juggled to prove them otherwise. They searched my suitcase, backpack and camera roll and asked me what a picture of ancient scrolls was. The answer was tax returns of the Nabatean empire. Finally, they had me draw my car keys to prove they were mine which apparently started this whole mess. After all that they finally let me through. Reminder: I scream American Ashkenazi Jew and they still stopped me for this long. Could’ve been a lot worse. Moral of the story: border police are assholes.

With that chaos out of the way I crossed the border and entered Israel to see Egypt briefly and then fly home ending my 16-day adventure of the Middle East. Certainly wasn’t boring.

Sam’s Sermon Scales:

West Oakland BART similarities? – 7/10. Now the country was not clean or great smelling. While I believe that in twenty years Jordan could easily be a first world country it still has a ways to go in the cleanliness department. But that’s easily overshadowed by the legendary hospitality of the Jordanian people. Besides genuine curiosity in where I was from and what America was like places such as the hotel breakfast or bus stop people were nice beyond belief. In Petra, a married couple that sold water on the trail to the monastery invited me to take a break and drink tea. Not buy anything, just tell them why I was here. Wadi Rum was similar and even clean mostly because it was just massive and had no one living in it.

“I could make this better!” – 9/10. Jordan it turns out thanks to some lonely planet skimming remains well known in the region for its tea and I can say the award makes reasonable sense. The tea was top quality and served with nearly every meal or rest break I took, often on the house. A mix of mint and cardamom (Both black teas) with a few sages on top made a local and excellent drink

Folks of Culture? – 11/10. Look, if you did not understand the historical and cultural magnificence of Jordan from my entire page of nerd rambling above, I believe there’s no point trying to convince you here.

Golden Hour Opportunities? – 9/10. Wadi Rum remains world-famous for how beautiful it looks at nice and Petra was given the title of world wonder with dozens of breathtaking views. The countryside itself was just beautiful. You can even see goat farmers on camels walking their herds through the mountain ranges in the distance.

Did the vegetarian starve? – 6/10. There was vegetarian food at each restaurant but it just suffered from the issue of not being many options at all, usually one or two, and the food overall not being particularly amazing. The perk though was that the food was stupidly cheap. Even on the most expensive street in Petra known as tourist street I got an 18” pizza for $10 US plus tea. At another place, I got vegetarian wraps, tea and French fries for $7 including tip.

“Hey boss, can I work more hours?” – 5/10. Despite splurging on an actual hotel room instead of a hostel due to me wanting peace and quiet by night 12 of my trip for $49 a night, it was fairly cheap in the room and board department. Wadi Rum was only $8 to enter for an entire day and the total fee the Jordanian government charged me for crossing from Israel was only $15. The kicker though was that Petra alone was $77 for two days and because I went back to Israel on Thursday night and Friday remains reserved for the Muslim holy day, I had to pay for a taxi back to the border which was $58 for an 80-minute ride.

Cooler than Middle Earth? – 7/10. While the entire country wasn’t mind-blowing the two main sites have some credibility. They film a ton of movies in Wadi Rum due to its one of a kind terrain. Lawrence of Arabia and The Martian are the two biggest ones. The terrain of Wadi Rum legitimately looks like Mars. Petra once again makes you think you’re exploring an ancient and forgotten city. But Jordan outside of the national parks wasn’t magical.

I’m personally very glad I got to see a country that few people I know have experienced. Sure the country as slightly nervewracking at times but travel always will be. I would absolutely go again given the chance. And hopefully, our civilization won’t be abandoned and discovered in 500 years.

Photos are attached below. Credit goes to myself

Best,

Sam