|
It is the valley
going west from the center of Petra, and is the passage for rain
water coming from Wadi Musa through Wadi al Muthlim to the center
of Petra then all the way to Wado Araba. The spring of Wadi al Siyyagh
is ten minutes walk from the museum, fresh water collected from
rain water starts to give you a different feeling of the desert,
fills the valley with trees and birds, the walk down this valley
is cool and refreshing even in the hot summer, in the winter it
is not recommended to try this hike, floods might fill it
any time...
The water of
Wadi al Siyyagh is used now for irrigation. Bedouins have planted
olive trees, granadine, peaches, grapes, figs, lemon and more to
be tasted on your way down... Bedouins used to depend on this water
for drinking when they used to inhabit Petra, and they say it was
bigger in quantity.
You will see
the quarries where Nabataeans used to get stones for their buildings,
the surfaces are left in a wondeful shape and texture, some have
decorative carvings, other have Nabataean inscriptions. Deeper into
the valley where the carved faces start to face west, and where
the quarries have the shapes of huge negative vases, there is a
track that takes you to the right all around the mountain west,
then north, then up to the Monastery
(The Deir). This track is so nice, to enjoy it most, and to
guarantee you will face no problems, please use a local guide...
In the beggining of the track you can see a sculpture of the goddess
ATARA'TA, the goddess of fertility, facing west, small in contrast
with the huge quarries, with beautiful squared eyes, a nose, and
a stripe on the forhead representing a wreath, beneath it is a Nabataean
inscription mentioning her name (the sculpture looks like the goddess
carved in Siq).
If you decide
to continue with the valley down and not take the route to the Monastery,
you will get to a small pool, after which you need ropes to descend,
one ring was placed there with an 8 mm. role plug by some rock climbers,
now this ring is removed! The way down takes you to Wadi Araba,
and staying at the pool (locals call it the Lisama) to relax and
have lunch, will get you ready for the way back...
|
|
|
