Petra in Jordan was the furthest I had ever been from home until I went on safari in Africa. After a 4-hour bus ride from Jerusalem, passing desert landscapes and small villages, and a 2 1/2-mile hike through ancient canyons, we came upon this famous "building" called the Treasury. It's not a building at all, but was actually carved from the canyon walls themselves thousands of years ago. As if that wasn't an incredulous feat already, it was carved from the rock from the top down, using such extreme precision that the building is nearly symmetrical. To get a sense of the sheer magnitude of this work, check out the photo below and the sizes of the people on the ground compared to the height of the canyon walls and the Treasury.
While some others with me had never seen this sight before, I knew it well from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, where it served as (spoiler alert!) the location where the Holy Grail was hidden in the "Canyon of the Crescent Moon." However, even though I knew what the Treasury looked like, I was totally unprepared for seeing it in person and realizing how it was carved.
You can see the hand and foot holes carved into the canyon face on both sides of the Treasury. And our tour guide pointed out that one of the columns needed to be restored -- however, it looked worse and more poorly constructed compared to the other pillars which had stood there for literally thousands of years!
Our lead up to seeing the Treasury was a unique experience, too—not just for us on the trip but for history, since it actually rained for 30 minutes during our hike and it NEVER rains in Petra, Jordan!
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