My highly anticipated trip to The Lost City saw me finally tick off the first of the New Seven Wonders on my bucket list. 

The city of Petra was the capital of the ancient Nabatean kingdom and one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world, which is visited by thousands today.

My friends and I got a friend of ours to sort our transportation and we ended up paying 18JD for the round-trip, which is around the same as a Jet Bus from Amman.  

The day started cold but warmed up considerably.

I took a jacket with me and wore comfy clothes and trainers because there was a lot of walking involved.

Unfortunately, in winter Petra closes at 5pm, so I didn’t get to see everything even though we were there for 9 am (after a 3-hour drive). 

We saw the Treasury, homes carved into the mountains and the amphitheatre.

Since I’m in Jordan for the year, my family will probably come to see me and so, I may visit again and do Petra by night or at least spend more time in the ancient city.

For the one-day entry we ended up spending 50JD (almost £60), which hurt my bank account, but I can’t really complain since it is a once in a lifetime experience.

However, there are deals on sometimes, like a 15% discount if you travelled to Jordan with Turkish Airlines (which I did, but sadly the deal had expired, despite the promotional posters still advertising it at the entrance).

It was a long walk from the entrance to the start of Petra and from there, it was an even longer walk through the twists and turns of the Siq (a natural gorge which is the passageway into the city).

However, the first glimpse of the Treasury was worth the trek.

It was only 9am but the place was already brimming with tourists and Bedouin workers trying to sell jewellery, camel rides and offering to be tour guides.

Although we already spent 50 JD for the one-day entry, we each paid an extra fiver to a worker to take us up a path to get to one of the prime picture-taking locations, where everybody gets an Instagram picture of the view of treasury (like mine below). 

At first, I couldn’t understand why we were paying 5 JD each when we could find the place ourselves or follow along behind other tourists. That is, until we actually risked our lives on this dangerous hike up the mountain. 

First of all, there wasn’t a chance of us finding the place on our own and secondly, I needed the assistance of someone who knew what they were doing, as the rocks were slippery, and some were unstable and there were no rails to hold onto.

All said and done, the risks were definitely worth the view.

After that, we explored more of the city and saw more sites and ruins. The highly advanced irrigation system, the Nabatean ruins and the Amphitheatre.

We also wanted to see the monastery, but Petra is bigger than we previously thought, with a lot of walking involved. However, we’d seen most of what we wanted and taken some decent pictures.

This will probably be my last Jordan related post for a while since I’m going home for the holidays and Petra was the last touristy thing we decided to do this semester.

Until next semester, Ya’tik Al Aafiya.

Ayesha is a travel writer and blogger and you can view more by clicking here