Searching For The Best Viewpoint In Petra in Jordan

Leaving Little Petra, we made our way over to Petra via a stop-off for lunch, as when we arrived back in Petra we would be looking for a viewpoint that we’d seen so many times in photos and videos (before arriving in Petra).

As obvious as the viewpoint seemed, we had no idea how to find it and so armed with photos of it, we hired a local guide to try to take us there.

Our guide ended up being a teenage boy who knew this whole place like the back of his hand.

He soon had us scrambling through these huge boulders making our way to the top of the hill just above Petra.

The higher we climbed, the scarier it got, and by the time we arrived at the viewpoint, with the carpet all laid out before us, my fear of heights was in complete overdrive.

I still have no idea what possessed us to go ahead and take these photos at the viewpoint because after we did it, we just realised how ridiculously unsafe it was.

There are other viewpoints like this a lot lower down and easier to get to but this one here is just ridiculous.

It’s a sheer drop, and our advice would definitely be for you to avoid doing it.

Plus, the view from the bottom is arguably more impressive anyway.

Once we were done here, we retraced our steps back towards where we came up the canyon, but instead of going down, we went around to check out the other parts of Petra we perhaps would have missed out on otherwise.

There was another harrowing bit at one doing as we made our way over to the opposite side of where we’d just been but after that, everything else was pretty straightforward.

And by straightforward, I don’t mean easy.

You’re still hiking up in the mountains but at least there was nothing that triggered any of our fear of heights.

The landscape up here by the way is just absolutely gorgeous and you get such a different appreciation for Petra from here.

You also get to see so many more structures that you definitely would have missed out on if you just stuck to the path at the bottom, though with that being said, there are definitely a lot less scary ways to find your way up here (like the way we went back down felt like a much better option for getting up here and even came with stairs).

Eventually, we decided to stop for a moment to soak up the sun slowly starting to dip and get ourselves some tea at a tiny little shack we found at the top.

Also, full disclosure, the reason why we were okay with drinking teas and coffees like this is because they are boiled and piping hot which alleviated any concerns of we might have had otherwise about the source of the water.

Also, its worth noting that none of us had any tummy issues after drinking any of these teas so you can make of that what you will. Hehe!

After our teas, we started on the easiest part of the hike so far, the journey back down.

I know lots of people really don’t like downhill hiking but it’s like one of my favourite things to do.

Uphill hiking I struggle with and will be one of the slowest in any group (I just find that I need to take my time a bit more with that) but downhill?

Oh, I’ll be at the fastest person in any group. Hehe!

This would actually be our final day of the trip in Petra before we would leave for the desert the next day and so we had to take a moment when we got to the bottom to take in the beauty that is Petra in the sunset.

Somehow, this day that was supposed to be relaxing had turned out to be one of the most active ones we’d had so far and definitely one of the most rewarding as we uncovered aspects of this ancient lost Kingdom we’d perhaps have missed out on otherwise.

Eventually, we made our way back to the entrance, via the incredible canyon where we found a bar to toast to how amazing Petra had been.

See you in Wadi Rum in the next post.

It’s a place you already know even if you don’t realise it as you’ve seen it so may Hollywood movies.

But, like I said, more on that in the next post. 😁😁

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