A short distance to the north of Petra is Siq al-Barid, a small archaeological site commonly referred to as Little Petra, because it’s essentially a miniature version of the world-famous ancient Nabatean capital.
It’s thought that Little Petra is where many Nabateans lived as it’s mostly home to a series of dwellings with very few tombs and temples, unlike Petra, which is a largely ceremonial and commercial tomb-and-temple fest.
Little Petra is quite small, but it’s dotted with a surprising number of houses, staircases and water cisterns, all carved into the rose-red rock, and I was stunned by how much there was to see.
The buildings were much simpler than those at Petra, but were nevertheless, mindbogglingly amazing.
We ventured inside a few of the houses – one had two rooms with a little alcove and a small ledge you could sleep on, along with large windows. Another had a black ceiling cause by the smoke from the oil that was used to heat the room.
One of the most impressive dwellings we looked inside was one known as the Painted House because it boasts a plaster ceiling and walls, which are decorated with intricate paintings of flowers, vines, gods and goddesses (above).
It’s incredible to think it’s survived for some two thousand years!
Little Petra sits within a gorge and there’s a very narrow, precarious flight of steps at the end of it where the ravine narrows considerably (above).
We decided to clamber up the steps to see where it took us, which wasn’t easy as it was less a traditional staircase and more a perilous set of rocks.
The slightly hair-raising climb was worth it though as it led onto a plateau where a few Bedouin lived.
We didn’t meet any Bedouin as walked around, but we did meet a tiny and very friendly ginger kitten (above).
We walked past the Bedouin tent and came to the end of the rock, which looked out over the valley beyond (above).
The view was, unsurprisingly for this part of the world, incredible, and we spent a good 10 minutes admiring the scene before us, before clambering back down to the archaeological site.
I loved our trip to Little Petra and was glad we’d added it to our itinerary as I’m sure many people skip it when they visit Petra.
It’s a fascinating place, and I was amazed by how many dwellings there were carved into the rocks, and how we were allowed to wander in and out of them with very few restrictions.
It’s quite small, so it doesn’t take long to look around, but it was great fun and complemented what we’d seen at Petra.
Little Old World 