Everyone knows Petra, and so many sponsored bloggers have over-done it in recent years (night photos of candles and other tourist crap) so there’s no travel advice here. Rather, I’ll show ‘What Petra used to be like’ with some scanned film photos from 1989.
Back in 1989 … I just walked to the entrance of Petra, paid my fee, and wandered in with a daypack, and a sleeping bag under my arm.
Despite a sign saying: No overnight stays. No camping.
No one stopped me.
I spent 3 nights sleeping in a small cave / tomb away from the main areas. Leaving my backpack there, while I explored.
My bed was a mattress of squat, deep-rooted bushes – that I couldn’t pull out but sawed-thru the stems with my Swiss Army knife.
The clumped heap on the stone cave floor was quite comfortable.
All my meals comprised processed cheese with tomatoes and tinned tuna in Arabic flat bread I carried with me.
Supplemented by sweet, hot tea – “shay” offered by local Bedouin (who still lived within the ruins).
Petra Vs Hegra
Experiencing the ancient Nabataean tombs of Petra in 1989 was WAY-MORE exciting than the tombs of Hegra in Saudi Arabia in 2024.
Travels in Jordan – 1989
