Known as Little Petra but in reality is called Al Beidha or Siq al-Barid (not to be confused with the nearby Neolithic village of Beidha) is about 15km north of Petra and well worth a visit after you’ve survived the hustle and bustle, touts and long walks of Petra itself. Besides the fact that at the moment it is free to enter.
The short drive there is through some really scenic errr........... scenery and is easy enough to find once you drive past the Mövenpick Hotel in Wadi Musa. Look out for the Elephant Rock as you pass by.
Little Petra was one of the main commercial areas of Petra, initially built at the same time as the main tombs area, about 100BC by the Nabateans, and was the entry and exit point for the trade routes to the north and north-west. Here the caravans from the Negev, Gaza and Askalon, from Jerusalem and the Phoenician coast would arrive and settle for a while to engage in trade, their camels and donkeys were too large to get through the small canyon entrance and would stay outside near a number of cisterns. The merchants probably stayed in the cool seclusion of the Siq al-Barid, the cold gorge, whose entrance is at the end of a narrowing of the valley.
A short walk from the car park takes you past a few stalls selling the usual stuff, but they are quite benign and hassle free –
The short drive there is through some really scenic errr........... scenery and is easy enough to find once you drive past the Mövenpick Hotel in Wadi Musa. Look out for the Elephant Rock as you pass by.
Little Petra was one of the main commercial areas of Petra, initially built at the same time as the main tombs area, about 100BC by the Nabateans, and was the entry and exit point for the trade routes to the north and north-west. Here the caravans from the Negev, Gaza and Askalon, from Jerusalem and the Phoenician coast would arrive and settle for a while to engage in trade, their camels and donkeys were too large to get through the small canyon entrance and would stay outside near a number of cisterns. The merchants probably stayed in the cool seclusion of the Siq al-Barid, the cold gorge, whose entrance is at the end of a narrowing of the valley.
A short walk from the car park takes you past a few stalls selling the usual stuff, but they are quite benign and hassle free –
Through the small alleyway/canyon/siq that is only a few metres long –
Then some rock formations come in to view –
There are three ‘courtyards’, that’s all, to Little Petra. The first one contains a temple or two, the second and third ones contain what is believed to be sleeping halls and dining halls. Many of the later halls have raised areas that would have been used for sleeping or eating and there are small cisterns in several of the caves suggesting this is for washing before eating. To give extra credence to the theory of dining halls are the pots and bones found when excavated -
Around the site are numerous steps leading away. These are to high places of worship and generally to the surrounding summits. In Petra a lot of these are blocked off now except for the major ones. Here they are all open and hours could easily be spent exploring up and down –
Moving further along –
More views of things as we stroll past –
One of the rooms in this courtyard is unique for its early first-century AD frescoed ceiling. From the outside it is insignificant, an unadorned hole. It is a two-benched dining room, and the ceiling of the alcove at the back of the chamber is painted all over with a delicate tracery of vines with bunches of grapes hanging from the branches. Inhabiting this leafy and flowered world are a variety of birds, some in flight, others resting on branches, a cherub-like figure of Eros with his bow and arrow, and a flute-playing Pan -
More views and more steps as we wander gently through –
Just near the end is another set of steps leading to a small canyon. That’s for another time.
So we meander slowly back to the beginning checking out more rock formations and eventually the last photo is of the surrounding countryside on the drive back –