Latest Posts — Sarah Clews Photography

Carved out of the rocks, around 300BC the sprawling complex of Petra is a testament to human ingenuity and skill. Fortified by mountains on all sides Petra was perfectly enclosed and shielded from attack providing a perfect foundation for the Nabatean people to build their home and empire.

The Nabatean people had a flair for practical building but also refinement and beauty.

They were master hydrologists- creating impressive water channels which cut deep along the edges of the rock- directing water into cisterns and creating a network throughout the city of water collection. They even created led and pottery pipes, which were very effective at retaining water and taking it to people’s homes.

Ancient Water channels cut deep into the Siq

We saw evidence of damning in the city and spotted the little water channels everywhere. There were even mechanisms in place to prevent the city from being washed away in the Winter when flash floods could strike and as witnessed first hand on our own hike the sudden volume of rainfall in Winter can be heavy and quite dangerous .

Complimenting this impressive skill for mastering the elements was an ability to build things of great beauty. The ornate carvings on the pillars and the symbols and images painstakingly chipped into the rock face clearly show an eye for art and refinement.

I was overawed by the feat of human effort to create this city-they must have been chipping, carving and chiselling away for years to create such an extensive site.
Yet, I was more in awe of the beauty of the rocks themselves- the rich sandstone glowed deep, red, rusty orange and rippled with vibrant yellow streams of colour. I’d never seen anything like it before.

Sandstone rock with crazy colour banding- different minerals create striking colour combinations

The sandstone rocks here were the most colourful I’d seen in Jordan and were a feast for both my eyes and the camera. After doing some reading- (I have recently become a bit of a wannabee geologist buff) I learnt that the red is an indicator of iron oxide, the black is magnese and the yellow is sulphur.

The crazy patterns and ripple effect is officially called liesegang banding and occurs when groundwater flows through the rock and deposits minerals through the sediment layers.

Different minerals produce different colours as explained above.

beautiful rich tones of the sandstone swirling like paint

One of my favourite moments of the day was when we stopped for lunch, hot and sweaty we clambered up the edge of the rock ravine and found a great spot to sit and gaze out at the site. Exploring on my own, and moving up higher I found more ancient rock dwellings and steps- the whole site is just scattered with them.

But more exciting still, was a beautiful section of sandstone, hidden under the edge of a rocky ledge, the banding was just incredible. I sat here to eat my lunch, and then was shooting away getting photos of the incredible patterns- rusty orange merged into strips of purple and dark grey banding.

I was completely absorbed in the geological delight before me when i heard a rather loud noise very close behind me.

Jumping around I let out a little cry- a huge grey goat with big floppy ears was protruding over the ledge above me, his face, a foot or so away from mine. He must’ve heard or smelt my lunch and had come to investigate. After getting over my initial shock we parted on good terms with him taking my apple core.