Our accommodations looked like Bedrock City, from the Flintstones. We were in fact in Wadi Rum, where a number of movies have been filmed, including Lawrence of Arabia and The Martian.

The red carpet to our bedouin breakfast.

And then off on our scenic “Jeep Tour.”

The only other traffic in this portion of the desert was camel traffic.

Or balloon traffic.

I think this is where they filmed The Martian.

“Thousand-year-old petroglyphs, doing a double take.”

Rush hour traffic jam in the desert.

More folks heading to work.

Lasting image of the towering scenery of Wadi Rum.

Several hours on the bus headed north, along the Kings Highway, and our other destination for the day: Petra, “the rose red city half as old as time.”

I think it was a holiday. The Siq, the long narrow valley to enter the historic city, was active with a lot of people.

Along the way we saw reminders of the camel caravans that wended their way along the spice route, through Petra.

On we walked, through the Siq, until finally our first stop was in sight.

The Treasury, actually a Nabatean Tomb, featured in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

We continued on down the road past more tombs, and bedouin trinket tables.

A brief rest for a busy donkey.

Looks like there’s trouble brewing in the used camel lot.

Next, the theater, which I believe is the only Roman theater carved out of stone.

Further down the road, Petra’s Great Temple.

A huge complex, the largest building of the ancient city, excavated by Brown University.

Earthquake destruction in evidence.

The trail continued, beginning a long climb.

Many bedouin shops along these routes. I paused for a quick photo at one. Later, as I walked on, a bedouin lady patted the bench beside where she was sitting and invited me to rest for a spell. I kept going.

I could have ridden a donkey.

Finally, our destination, The Monastery.

Back down the way we came, but then another trail.

And another ascent.

With more tombs.

And other interesting features.

Finally, the high place of sacrifice. One of the bedouin shopkeepers had left behind his sacrifice of jewelry (perhaps).

We were high above the street where we had walked hours ago.

It was late in the day but refreshment was still available.

I enjoyed the view, with my travel partner, John DeLancey.

It was getting late, time to move on.

And then John ran into a friend from his many previous trips to Petra.

We still had a long ways to go, down and down and down. When we got back to The Treasury they were packing up the camels to go home for the night.

The sun was setting as we left the Siq behind. We had walked 11-12 miles. We were tired.