Magic Mud - The Dead Sea (courtesy Patrick and Andrea Conway)

From Amman our bus took to the King's Highway in the direction of Petra, first travelling through the fertile Jordan Valley to the Dead Sea. I was pretty excited about visiting the Dead Sea - at an elevation of 400m below sea level; this is the lowest place on earth!

The easiest way to visit the Dead Sea in Jordan is through one of the swish hotels that line the shore. These each have a piece of beach front so you can have a float, and most sell a day pass that gives you access to their regular pools so you can have a bit of a proper swim after you just can't take any more salt. And boy is it ever salty!! Normal sea water has about 3-4 percent salt, but the Dead Sea is about 30 percent salt, so you really don't want to end up with a mouthful of this stuff. In fact, our guide (a Canadian who picked up our tour in Amman) stood on the shore with a bottle of clean water so he could rinse out the eyes of those unlucky types who got the salt water on their face. There's so much salt in this water that it cakes the shore like little snowdrifts! more...

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Petra absolutely amazed me. You walk down a narrow winding valley to enter into Petra. You are surrounded by sandstone walls that reach towards the sky, letting in only a touch of sunlight. You continue down the gorge you start to see little shapes in the rocks...they are only the appetizers. You start to see doors, stairs, and what appear to be statues...but you're not quite there yet. As you near the end of the tunnel, it slowly reveals itself...the ancient city of Petra opens up in front of you.

Petra took my breath away. It is amazing to me that such a place exists on earth. It is amazing to get this glimpse into the past...can you believe people lived here? Can you believe they were able to carve such an amazing city out of rock? Can you believe they did this without modern tools? The power of people continues to amaze me!

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