The Petra by Night Experience
I’ve seen so many online comments about Petra by Night – love it or hate it, I guess. But I thought it was a special experience – just keep in mind that it’s a show, and not a nocturnal tour of Petra. You have to wonder what some people expect.
A walk in the dark with luminarias and cell phones to light the way
I was enjoying the drive from Mount Nebo toward Wadi Musa, the hilly town outside Petra. It came along sooner than I wanted it to. I hadn’t yet seen my hotel when my driver and guide Ahmad parked in front of two men sitting in plastic chairs by an open door. “What we are doing?” I asked. “Getting your tickets.” I couldn’t see a sign that said “tickets.” I handed over the cash. It looked pretty casual, but the tickets for Petra by Night and tomorrow in the daytime looked glossy and official, and my hotel just around the corner (the Mövenpick) was very nice. Ahmad went off until the next afternoon and I was alone at Petra. Petra, a UNESCO World Heritage Center, one of the treasures of the world. A treasure to Hollywood as well. You might have seen some sights of Petra in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. But don’t believe the movies about what’s behind the façades, because there’s actually not much at all.
Petra by Night
I chose to go to the Petra by Night experience at the strong recommendation of a friend who had lived several years in Jordan. If you are thinking about Petra by Night, it’s useful to keep in mind that it’s not a night tour of Petra. It’s a show. It’s theater. You sit on the sand in front of the shadowy great Treasury, Al Khazneh. There is a host/storyteller and there are performers. If by some unlikely chance you could see only Petra by Night or Petra in daytime, you would not have any trouble choosing day. But I think Petra by Night is worth doing.
My hotel was only steps away from the entrance to Petra’s plaza of souvenir shops and refreshment stands, closed by the time I walked among them. I joined people already gathering formlessly near the ticket gate. Eventually we’d queue up and start as a group. The sky turned deep indigo. Lights appeared on the hillsides. It was refreshing now with the temperature ready to dip into double digits after another 100-degree day. Then the crowd began to form into a line near the turnstile. It was dark at last, and we were off.
Petra luminarias
The entrance to Petra is through a mile-long slot canyon, the Siq, reached by a longish, sloping gravel carriageway. The length of the carriageway and Siq was lined with luminarias, those paper bags weighted with sand and holding candles that scout troops sell around Christmas in the U.S. It was quiet except for intermittent talking and the crunch of the stony carriageway under all those feet. As we entered the Siq, the sound changed from crunch to echo. So my first impression of Petra was aural – not much was visible in the luminaria light (and the inevitable cell phone or flashlight). I’d read the guidebook and studied the Petra map. I knew the way. The long walk in the Siq was dark, mysterious and evocative of why the city was hidden for centuries. But I was beginning to wonder whether Petra by Night going to be mostly a long walk.
Then suddenly around a corner the Siq gave into an open canyon in front of the Treasury, Al Khazneh, recognizable in the shadows, high as a 10-story building. Al Khazneh is what most people want to see, and it’s the perfect background for theater because it’s almost all façade. The rooms behind all that red sandstone grandeur are small and inconsequential. Here we were at last. The large group somehow got seated on rugs arranged in rows delineated by luminarias. A legion of fast walking people served us sweet tea. A cat walked by and sat near me, a silhouette against the glowing bags.
In English, the host asked for quiet but the chatter continued especially among a large group that didn’t seem to speak English, much less Arabic. Or they didn’t care. And instead of just the luminarias, I was surrounded by 200 ongoing pinpricks of light as people took pictures of the darkness. A man recorded every step of a curly-haired blonde, aiming his phone at me. I had to shield my eyes from that one. In the midst of this, the show started with a supposed-to-be hidden Bedouin playing the flute (a shabbaba?). He was constantly illuminated by flashes. As the show progressed, a man sitting among the crowd played a rababa and sang a Bedouin song. He too was flashed upon. Rababa means “a bowed instrument.” It is probably the oldest stringed instrument existing. It’s good to give it a thoughtful listen, especially in its natural home, and closing my eyes helped me focus. Music done, Al Khazneh was illuminated and the host invited us to walk around and take photos. The powerful lights made harsh shadows and robbed Al Khazneh of color, but one after another families and groups gathered in the beams for photos. I managed a selfie and a few inadequate pictures of Al Khazneh. But photography wasn’t why I came at night. I was looking for some of the mystery.
And then it was done. We took our long walk back through the Siq. By then I had lost some new friends from Mexico. (We found each other the next day.) When I exited the shopping plaza, a forlorn dog limped under the mercury-colored lights. Taxis waited a cul-de-sac and there was a chorus of “Taxi! Taxi!” from the drivers. But the Mövenpick was across the cul-de-sac, and it was nice to have only those few steps between me and a wash-up and sleep. I didn’t come away from Petra by Night with a deeper understanding of the desert culture although I think that’s the intent of the show, that and getting the glimpse of Al Khazneh. But if it didn’t conjure up a feeling of Nabatean Petra or the culture of the desert Bedouin, I did feel its warm afterglow. And not only because it was still 100 degrees.
Trip date: June 2015