How's it going Steemers?
I would like to share my story with you about when I got to explore the lost city of Petra, and a flash flood ripped through the gorge past the Treasury.
We woke up and got ready for a full day of exploring Petra. It was 6 am and one degree. There was a slight drizzle of rain and was very cold. We met up with our tour guide and the rest of the group and headed towards Petra.
As we were walking towards the entrance which is a huge gorge that they call the Siq, that winds its way to the city of Petra, the rain was a constant drizzle.
The path became very muddy on our walk to the Siq entrance.
Once we got to the Siq entance, all the walls of the gorge are sand stone which made all the colours in the rock pop when it was wet. It was a beautiful sight.
This gorge is part of the original silk road, so all the camel caravans had to pass through it on the silk road. And Petra would tax the caravans when passing through. Which made the city of Petra very wealthy. The caravans would stop for supplies, food and water for their camels.
As we made our way through the gorge the rain was getting heavier. The horse and carts that carry tourists and supplies were all slipping on the wet ground.
We came to the first dam wall and it was already over flowing.
But we marched on in excitement to see one of the world wonders! The constant stream of water along the path was getting deeper.
Along both walls there is a channel carved out for water to flow down to the city from out side of the city. The water was just rushing through these with the quickness.
We made our way to the end of the Siq where it it opens up to the magnificent treasury. There was a little river rushing through which was just over ankle deep at the end, so we had to get our feet wet. But to see the treasury it was all worth while!
Now the Treasury is carved into the sand stone and the Nabatian's carved it so, when it rains the water runs down past the treasury so it never gets wet.
We were there for about 5min before the dam wall at the Treasury broke.
Water slowly trickled past the front of the Treasury, which quickly turned into a raging river within minutes. All the locals where running around grabbing their belongings and the park rangers came down to evacuate everyone back up to higher ground.
Sadly in 1963, 21 French tourists and two tour guides drowned in Petra during a flash flood. So they rebuilt the dams to prevent this from happening again.
Petra only has around nine day's of rain per year, so I guess we where lucky to be able to see Petra like this.
We headed back to our hotel for some lunch and beers and chilled for the rest of the day while drying out our clothes.
The following day was beautiful weather and we had a full day of exploring Petra. It was like there was never a flash flood or anything.
Petra is an amazing place to visit. I highly recommend the trip.
Thanks for stopping by, a resteem or an upvote would be greatly appreciated ☺
Happy travels
G