Ragnar's World: Rocky bottoms

I once heard a story about about Michelangelo. I don't know if it is true, but it is a good story anyways. He was tasked with making a sculpture and was given a large block of marble. For days and weeks the bishop who comissioned the sculpture walked by the room where he sat. In the end, he became annoyed that Michelangelo just sat there. Doing nothing. So one day he walked into the room, and asked, sarcasticly "I see you are working hard on the statue!". To which Michelangelo supposedly replied "Oh, the statue is finished. I am just trying to figure out how to get it out of the block."

On my second day in Petra, I spent some time just sitting in front of the monestary and thinking. Why did this site impact me so much? I have been to places with magnificent buildings, and grandiose workmanship. But still. This place affected me in a profound way. And as I sat there, I suddenly realized what it was. This was the most perfect combination of two masterpieces. God's own, and two monuments made by ancient peoples. The other buildings I have seen, have been laid brick upon brick. Stone upon stone. But these? The Treasury and the Monestary? The have been carved right out from the mountain itself. Just like the magnificent sculptures of Michelangelo and others like him, these ancient sculpturers didn't chisel out sculptures of people and beasts, but rather buildings. That's what made this so special. That's what made such an impact on me.

And walking through God's own sculpture park on the way, was just too much for y brain to cope with. If I had seen just one of those, I would have been pleased. In fact, I was so taken by the colors, shapes and patterns of the rockfaces rising up around me that I almost jumped when the Treasury suddenly appeared in front of me. There were scores of camel-herders and souvenir-sellers and guides trying to get my attention, but I was so mezmerized by the sight that they disappeared as mere background noise. I just stood there, mouth open. Eyes fixed. Studying this magnificent work of art in front of me. Nothing I have ever seen even compared to this. This was the ultimate experience. The sheer experience of walking through the rock sculptures and then arriving at this was so profound it brought tears to my eyes. It took the best part of half an hour before I was able to register anything or anybody around me.

I could have turned back and left, and I would have been satisfied. But there was more to see. So I managed to break free and continue. Seeing more magnificent works of art carved out of the rocks. And the rocks themselves as works of art by the hand of God himself. And the walk up to the Monestary. Even though I was gasping for air on the way, the beauty of the walk and the mountains, colors, shapes took my breath away without even walking.

All in all, this has been so much of an amazing experience, I have no idea how to top this anywhere else in Jordan. So maybe I will just stay in Amman til I go. I dunno. Today, I have tried to sort images and reduce the numbers. But there is so much to show I have had a hard time to get down to a reasonable number. So I will try to divide it into three sections. 1) The rock "art", 2) The Treasury and Monestary and 3) other stuff. Enjoy!

The rock art

In no particular order. These images are some of the images I took of the beautiful colors, shapes and patterns in the rocks. Some have enhanced colors to make these more obvious. With sunglasses, the colors became more clear. Without them, they became more bland. So I found the enhanced colors made the images look more like what I saw. Click on the images to get a larger version.

The Treasury and Monestary

I have already descibed what I felt when arriving at the treasury, so I will forego that here. Just leaving the images. I went twice to both buildings. So I saw them in two different light conditions. Click on the images to see larger versions.

Everything else

This are images of other things to see in Petra. Some are old buildings from the same era. Some were erected by the Romans. And then some other stuff.