PETRA!!

On a dark desert highway. Cool wind in my hair...

On yet another star-filled night, we eased our tour bus out of the resort city of Aqaba and headed north to Petra. Our pedal-to-the-metal driver raced over darkened desert roads as the minutes edged past midnight. Most of our group slept while the landscape rushed by. The few awake among us were treated to a pitch-black road of twists and turns likely to challenge even the most reckless, carefree driver. I and the other night-owl singer in our group managed to muddle through most of the lyrics to Hotel California and still the road stretched on.

Up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmerin' light.

The town of Wadi Musa gleamed in front of us as our heads grew heavy and our sight grew dim. We had to stop for the night, and what better place than the Crowne Plaza? We groggily checked into our rooms at 1 a.m. and grudgingly agreed to meet in the lobby at 7 a.m. See, our Jordanian friends advised us to approach Petra early to catch the Treasury in all its sun-bathed glory before 10 a.m. Excellent advice, and so worth the short night's slumber. So we enjoyed a quick breakfast buffet surrounded by surreal views of rock formations from the dining room's floor-length windows.

Then, we headed out the door to Petra. A quick walk down the hotel pathway led us to the Visitor's Center, where we wisely hired an English-speaking guide for 15 JD.

What followed was an awe-filled six hours at one of the modern Seven Wonders of the World. This site meant so much to me as a teacher and student, not to mention the emotions I felt when I tried to imagine the artists who crafted this rose-colored city. As a trade route for the ancient Nabatean civilization, Petra saw influences from Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Greek, and Roman cultures. (Room 221 students!! You can see why I was so excited!) Carvings in the rocks often encompass several of these cultures at the same time, with Egyptian obelisks paired with niches for Greek gods, for example. The site is an archaeologist's nirvana: only 5 percent of Petra has been excavated.

Our guide led us to the Siq, a twisting, narrow pathway between a towering rock wall that was rent in two from an earthquake more than two thousand years ago. We meandered through the Siq, then gasped as we caught a shaft of sunlight slanting through the rocks ahead. Our group rushed ahead to bask in the Treasury building's glory but I stood, staring at the sight as tears of joy slipped down my cheeks. I quietly stepped along, coming at last to rest on red sand in front of the Treasury.

This is the most famous of Petra's buildings. Corinthian columns support intricately carved representations of gods and goddesses from the 1st century BCE. The underground of the building was under excavation when we visited.

I could have spent more time lingering in the beauty, but our group was eager to explore more of the ancient city. We persuaded our guide to stay with us as we walked a colonnaded Roman road past Nabatean workers' ancient dwellings and royal tombs. If you stopped and looked closely at the stones in the road, you could see the ruts from the Romans' chariot wheels.

We stopped in the site's museum, where I purchased a book for my students and a Twix candy bar for my growling stomach. Then half of our group hired camels and the other half (including me) hired donkeys to take us back to the Siq. We had to check out of our hotel by 2 p.m., so we ended up taking a brisk return walk. But not before I stopped for one final view of the Treasury, shrouded in shadow from the Siq wall.