Today we only visited two sites, but both of them were pretty major. Our first was Petra, followed by a quick stop at a lookout near Bozrah and then ending up at Bozrah. Admittedly, Petra was by far the most awe inspiring site. While not really a biblical site, it certainly displayed the accomplishment of the Naboteans and showed the importance of a desert "port" city.
Petra was potentially the most impressive place I have ever seen. Not only are the buildings beautiful, but it is hard to imagine they were carved. It is impressive enough that someone could build a tomb of the magnitude of these, but to carve it out of solid rock is amazing! The variety of the tombs was also impressive. While there was certainly a particular style, all of the tombs looked different and unique. Some of my favorite were the ones in the very colorful rock. The blue, red, and yellow all streaked together was incredible. When tombs were carved into it besides, it was certainly a unique site.
Besides all the carvings at Petra, the landscape itself is stunning. It reminds me of a grand canyon type landscape. The cliffs are massive, and there are a lot of really nice places to hike. We went up to the High Place and then hiked through a wadi (the name of which I unfortunately do not quite remember). I think the wadi hike was my favorite part of the day at Petra. It was completely awesome just hiking through the hills and steps and stopping in all the caves we found along the way. It was such a memorable experience.
I also got a bit of a new appreciation for the difficulty of living on the frontier. As much fun as it was to walk through Petra, I could see the challenges involved in living in such a place. The dangers of the cliffs, the dry land with a scarcity of water, and the potential dangers of enemies around make life on the frontier a pretty tough place. We could see that even as we walked through. Staying on paths was critical, but sometimes even the path was difficult to distinguish.
Another interesting part of Petra was realizing what the uses of all the carvings were. Interestingly, all the beautiful, elaborate buildings were tombs, and the smaller, simple caves were homes. It portrayed a view of after-life that placed a lot of importance on the physical dwelling. Basically, they wanted to make an elaborate home for the one they would spend eternity in, but they did not bother too much with the one they were only going to spend 50 years or so in. There were also a lot of carvings of idols which portrayed the religious natuer of the site. People came to worship as they walked through the entrance to the main part of the city.
Moving on from Petra, we made our way to Bozrah. Just before arriving, we stopped at a lookout spot and looked down into the wadi there. From that view point we could see just how difficult it would be to drive and army up the cliffs into the heartland of Edom. It helped to give us a good view of just how secure Edom actually was. It was also cool to see because we will be hiking through that wadi in just a month or so on the Cultural Backgrounds trip into Jordon.
At Bozrah, it was really interesting to discover that yet again the capital city looked a fair amount like Jerusalem (at least topographically). To be fair, Bozrah is actually significantly more defensible than Jerusalem with steeper and higher hills surrounding the plateau of the city; however, the basic concept is the same. The drawback to Bozrah is the springs are all the way at the bottom of the cliffs, unlike Jerusalem where they can be walled within the city. This makes it more difficult for Bozrah to get the water they need if they were to be in the middle of a battle.
Here as well, I got a definite impression of how difficult it might be to live in that part of the land. Today the wind was so strong it almost knocked me over a couple of times. The dust got in everything and was just generally annoying. Getting up to the city involved plenty of driving around twists and turns and through a tough terrain. Anyone who lives in a place like that must belong to a tough people. It is no wonder Edom must have thought highly of their secure city or that they looked down on those in Jerusalem, as being soft and taking an easy life. It is also understandable how the Jerusalemites could think the Edomites a wild and uncultured people living out there on the edge.
As usual, today was another good day of learning new things and exploring new places. We looked at the challenges of the frontier life as well as the importance of the desert "port" cities.
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