Mawanusa Blog: Trip to Petra

Mawanusa Blog: Trip to Petra: Back in 1981 when I was in senior high school I studied the subject about world history. That included histories of ancie...

Trip to Petra

Back in 1981 when I was in senior high school I studied the subject about world history. That included histories of ancient civilization of Egyptian Pharaohs and Its Civilization, Machu Pichu with Great Mayan civilization, Borobudur of Java, Great Wall of China, As well as The Hanging Garden of Petra. It was a very interesting subject but as a high school student, I did not realize how great these momentous eras were.

In 1989 the released of Steven Spielberg movie ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’ from Paramount Pictures took place in several countries including here at Petra, Jordan. I did not give so much attention about the location shoot, but I enjoyed the adventure of Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones, travelling to the ancient world to find  ‘mysterious’ things as what most of the Indiana Jones story plot is set - to go to unknown ancient places, and what interest me most was watching the scenes on all trapped places, magic spells, unusual creatures, etc.

About the image above: Above of Petra is just rocks

and the slope is where the Siq corridor passage toward El Kazhneh

After my four years mission in Cambodia, my next destination took me to Sharm El Sheikh in Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. This was my dream since 2006 - to visit this country. Earlier before I am flying from Indonesia, I bought some books about Egypt and Jordan in one of the bookstores in Jakarta, and since then I started to learn about ancient civilization.

About the image above: Road to Petra

About the image above: modern town of Petra

About the image above: a local man on a horse, transportation to the sites.

After arriving Egypt, I started to learn more about the map surrounding Egypt and I saw the country Jordan and then I look upon this interesting place called Petra.  I asked my colleague how far is that place.  One problem was I do not have a visa to cross the border and I asked my agent on how to arrange the visa and I was very lucky that I do not need a visa since I have an Egyptian visa so I can just get on the boat when I cross the border to Aqaba. That was great! And so I decided to have a day trip to Petra from Sharm El Sheik. The journey took about 6-7 hours, with an English-speaking tour guide and my journey has begun.

At about 01.30 past midnight the driver picked me up from the hotel where I stayed. I have my camera, bag, tripod, drinks and some light food and sandwiches for the long trip. The way from Sharm El Sheik to Nuweba near Taba (still in Sinai, Egypt) took about one hour and forty five minutes. After waiting for a short while and completing the immigration passport check, I boarded a ferry boat to cross the Arabian sea to Aqaba, and the trip took about one hour and thirty minutes. The trip on the boat was fun with the crew, we can also order some nice coffee and tasty snacks. I arrived at the Jordanian soil at about 5.30 in the morning, and my English-speaking guide picked me up and escorted me to the car to transport me to the destination of my dream – Petra!

 

About the image above: Djinn Block, a guardian before entering the site

About the image above: Obelisks Tomb

On the way to Petra, there were many fascinating things I captured with my lovely camera, I can see the morning life in the city of Jordanian desert slowly unfold before my eyes. People in the villages started their early activities, cultivating grains on a very dry soil. It took about two and half hours before I reached the site and in between, we stopped shortly to have some morning treat, a Jordanian coffee with toasted croissant and honey in a coffee shop facing the Petra village.  The view was amazing and I was so excited to see how beautiful this place is. I changed some money to Jordanian Dirham just in case I need to buy some souvenir or something in the site.

As we were closely approaching Petra, my guide showed me from where I can see Petra in an almost aerial view where the scenery was absolutely breathtaking!

We then reached Petra and bought the ticket to enter this magnificent site.  Then my guide started explaining about Petra, how was the civilization looked like during that great era, I actually knew some information about it as I have read it earlier.

Petra or ‘Al Batra’ in Arabic is located in Ma’an Governorate, Jordan. Petra was announced on 11 November 2011 as the new seven wonder of the world and has been voted by over 14 million voters. It is famous for its rock cut architecture. Petra established for settlement during the 6^th century B.C. as a capital city of Nabataeans. But the culture of the wonder of fine rock-cut carving was only established about 1550 B.C. or maybe they started a bit earlier with some simple carvings for the purpose of preserving their mummies and tombs for their ancestors.

About a century since the 1^st century B.C. Petra marked and indentified itself at one of the cosmopolitan in this peninsula of the desert trade road. This is a golden road reaching the red sea for the journey to the ancient Egypt.

Few explorers described this place as a special place that will last forever like John W. Burgon wrote and included in his poem as ‘a rose-red city half as old as time’. UNESCO described as ‘one of the most precious cultural properties of man’s cultural heritage’. BBC chosen it as one of ’the 40 places you have to see before you die’. The introduction of Petra by a Swiss explorer named Johann Ludwig Burckhardt to the world in 1812 helped to promote it and since then many travelers and adventurers visited this site.

Fabio Bourbon wrote on the preface of his book ‘Petra. An Archaeological Guide history. Civilization and Monuments’ – “Petra is one of those rare places where, even people who do not believe in magic, quiet soon must revise their convictions. If you are be able to grasp its charms – by listening to the poetry of silent, by gazing at the kaleidoscopic, ceaseless change in colours, while admiring the superb balance of the rock-cut architecture – even you shall be paid back by the intimate, profound feeling of a matchless beauty. Above all, you shall go back home storing a treasure in your heart”

Fabio’s guidebook really help me a lot on this trip as I am not familiar with the place but with this book I was able to find and discover almost anything in Petra without further explanation from my tour guide. What Fabio has written in his book was absolutely true and I have almost the same feeling when I visited Petra. No other places as magical as Petra, these rock-cut monuments are really incomparable treasure to other ancient monuments in the other parts of the world. I have visited many ancient temples in Asia, India and Egypt, and Petra is completely different, the laser precise of rock-cut carving is really amazing, and on that period of time, who else among the vast span of human civilization can do this epic job but only the Nabataean did it!

Besides that, the rocks are pink in color, in some places the rocks are so colorful with a kind of rock-layered, beaming with variety of colors, just like painted naturally which makes this place even more exquisitely stunning. So because of the pink-reddish colors of the rocks some text called this site as the ‘pink city’.

We entered the site of Petra from the main tourist entrance of the Bab al Siq. After walking for a few meters we started seeing the signs of the civilization appearing as murals on the rocks with many other small carvings. Then on the left side we saw the Djinn Blocks

Djinn Blocks are three blocks of rocks about 5-9 meters high that can be seen easily after entering the entrance. It is a cube-shape stone carving that was carved on the 1^st century B.C. and looked like the tombs of monolithic cubes. It is believed that those where the dwellings of cruel spirit reside and will scare to death anybody that frolicked and bumped into them. It seems like a sacred spot that looked like a guardian of the place or maybe it has a different function at that time because the word ‘Djinn’ – or unseen spirit – was completely was non-existent during the Nabatanean because they believed in different form of spirits.

After few meters from the Djinn Blocks, on the left hand side there are sand stones carved in two levels. In the lower level there are small hollow entrance, this is the Tomb of Serpent – it was called so because there appeared in one of the walls bas reliefs two snakes or serpent that looked like acting as if attacking a four footed animal.  Or maybe it has a different name during the Nabataean time. The upper lever is also nicely carved similarly to a group of four tips of Egyptian obelisks – as it is called the Obelisks Tomb. This is about a four-meter high structured rock carving that is very unique, with different type of carving and very obvious because, probably it was carved after the invention of Egyptian obelisks and they started to interact with Egyptian pharaonic rulers in different times to establish their relation or trade transaction, no one knows.

About the image above: Site of a tomb

 

About the image above: stone blocks on top of Petra

About the image above: way to the Siq

About the image above: the guards at the entrance

After these two interesting sites, we continue to move on to reach the beginning of the Siq, there were many small to medium size tombs which is also amazing to discover. Just before entering the canyon, there was a tunnel to keep the water flowing from the upper water source to the other side of Petra water bank that was used for irrigation and at the same time to keep Petra from flood water, while the water flow under the constructed bridge by the smart Nabataean engineers.

Now we enter the shady colorful canyon of the massive colonnade passage way or the only bypass road of Petra. I noticed there was a block of stone probably for the guard as a checkpoint for those who will enter Petra’s inner bypass street of the Siq. This passage is really spectacular. The length of the passage is about 1½ kilometers long with amazing ravine embedded between two great natural walls of about 180 meters high but in some area this maybe shorter. This natural access is about 3-4 meters wide following the caste of the natural canyon shape, winding but interesting. This part of Petra is cooler than the other parts because a higher wall prevents the sunshine from coming in.  On the way you can see numerous carvings, ruin of statues, arch, some inscriptions on the walls. The water flow canal system was also maintained in this area on both sides of the wall skirting. In some areas you still can find the original flooring and visible in few parts of the Siq. As you passed this area, there are some dark areas and the way take you to many turns, and you will be finally amazed seeing the most beautiful monument in Petra area, El Khazneh.

El Khazneh or Treasury is the most famous and elaborate rocky-cut monument building in Petra. The beauty, the charming, the character, and the most fascinating thing is the brilliant position of location of this monument, as soon as you reach this point you will feel really breathless that such grand and majestic structure, leave a moment of enchanting moment life experience. This is the most beautiful ancient monument I have ever seen. El Khazneh is about 39.6 meters high and 28 meters width. Because of the structure of the monument that is that carved on the well preserved stone, it allows the viewers to see the grandeur of the ruin for centuries.  We can write unlimited description for this magical ruin as well as admire and imagine the time when the building has just been completed, of how beautiful it was. Lots of sacrifices and hard work of Nabataean peoples put to this grand project, together as team work of amazing artists towards reality of a dream!

If we view this El Khazneh surrounding by rock tombs, probably this has been utilized as a Royal sepulcher, but until this time it is still a controversy. The service and faith of the believer of that era allowed them to create art out of imagination that last forever. The building has six pillars that supported the upper store castle-like carving and has an entrance with steps toward the inside of the most sacred main hall. The details and the elegant carvings and decorations are to add significant value to its appearance.

About the image above: the water flow system along the Siq

About the image above: the ceiling of the Siq passage

About the image above: carving on the wall along the Siq

About the image above: the original floor of Petra

About the image above: visitors gathered along the shady Siq

About the image above: El Kazheh, the Treasure

About the image above: Roman Theatre

After this incredible monument, we walked the outer Siq and we pass by the many beautiful rock carvings around the triclinium but mostly tombs carvings. This area looked like a village with hollow rocks on the right and left hand side. The passage was a winding down route, feels like a never-ending turning to your left and right. Here, the rocks were hanging high.  A bit further on your left side you will be surprised to see suddenly a beautiful enormous hollow theatre sculptured into solid rock with very precise measurement completed with circular sitting style public rock chairs (theatre style of course) for the audiences and in front has an entrance stage for performers. This place seems like a central for art and cultural show or special events – pretty amazing!

Walking along the Façade Street, especially on the right hand side, there were many important tombs for Urn, Silk, Corinthian, Palace, Sextius Florentinus, etc. Some of the carvings here looked like were carved on top of each other. From here I walked to the Church and Temple of Winged Lions. Then I went down to the front of the Grand Temple.

From the ruins of the temple we can see that the great civilization has truly existed here. Unlike the Egyptian ruins, the pillars are mostly cylindrical type of pillars with a very smooth finish. This temple must be the most sacred place in the Nabataean and must be the most visited site during that era, as a place for center of pilgrimages and worships.

About the image above: Grand tomb

About the image above: stairs to the tombs

About the image above: colorful rocks

About the image above: the Corinthian tombs

About the image above: mosaic of Petra

About the image above: plant at Petra, a (sage) tea leave delicacy

About the image above: the ruin of the main temple of Petra

About the image above: the ruin of the temple of Winged Lion

About the image above: ruin of the carving shows for a column

About the image above: souvenirs from Petra

About the image above: a café to have a drink

About the image above: incredible sunset over Petra

After the tour of this last temple, I was finally feeling so tired and I cannot walk anymore! But my mind would like to explore more and more, I would like to discover the entire Petra but I feel I have no more energy to walk farther. I wish I could stay for a few more days here to explore Petra, or return in a better shape next time with better itinerary.           I have taken enough photographs until here. Then I finally took a cart to go back to the main entrance.  Bye for now Petra…until next time.

Petra was declared by UNESCO as a World Heritage site since 1985 and was also voted as New Seven Wonder of the World since 11 November 2011.

Mawanusa Blog: SCRIBES IN THE ANCIENT EGYPT

Mawanusa Blog: SCRIBES IN THE ANCIENT EGYPT: Talking about ‘Scribes’ in the ancient Egypt, it was the most esteemed job and the people showed high respect to scribes ...

SCRIBES IN THE ANCIENT EGYPT

Talking about ‘Scribes’ in the ancient Egypt, it was the most esteemed job and the people showed high respect to scribes because of their outstanding skills, carrying out various notable functions all at the same time.

The social status of the scribes was considered to be among the high caste and exclusive only to this group because they were well educated in script writing using different languages such as hieroglyphic, hieratic and demotic. It was mentioned that people who belonged to this special caste were provided with better quality clothing, having a hand that is likened to a shape of a candle and smooth in texture, and enjoyed many other privileges in the kingdom. They were not sent to war, they were not involved in farming and never allowed to stand too long under the heat of the sun. They were in the temples, palace, and other important places to do their duties. They were known to read exceptionally fast with deep comprehension and of course excellent in writing and serving their kings and gods extremely well.

About the image above: statue of a scribe from Alexandria

In ancient Egypt the scribe was called ‘Sesh’, meaning ‘to write and to read’ and we see in the temples all the drawings and writings, as well as in the papyrus text; the drawings of these writings were also considered as part of the art of writing itself.

‘(……………………………………… Be a scribe! Your body will be sleek; your hands will be soft. You call for one to assist you and a thousand answer. You walk freely on the roads, you are not like the hired ox that labors and is beaten for refusal. You are in front of the others.

…………………… Be a scribe and be spared from soldiering. You can be safe from torments.

…………… A letter from Nebmare-nakht to Wenemdiamum written about 12^th century B.C)’

The scribes were special group of people that were entitled to such privileges above, that helped them maintain a slim, fit body, a good skin and smooth hands because they were never sent to do farming, to be exposed to the heat of the sun.  Their hands were always clean because were only holding pens and papyrus to record every moment of important things happening in the kingdom. They also have maids, they can walk freely in the street without anybody disturbing them or no guards to stop them anywhere they go.

All of their needs were supplied by the kingdom regularly in weekly or daily basis and were always received on time. The lives of scribes were in favorable stage and they were loved by the kings and gods. ‘(…..But though I spend the day telling you to write, it seems to plague you. Writing is pleasant……Nebmare-nakht - 12^th century BC.)’

The scribes were also trusted by the pharaohs and they always do something valuable during his lifetime. They had their own houses, their own horses, and special transportation, a boat kept for their exclusive use to travel along the river Nile. ‘(………. I instruct you to become one whom the pharaoh trusted; to make you gain the treasury and granary. You will be dressed in the fine clothes, you will own horses; your boat will be on the river. A mansion will be built for you……… Nebmare-nakht - 12^th century BC.)’

HOW TO BECOME A SCRIBE

To become a scribe, one needs to attend hard long process of selections and schooling. The chief of scribes, together with his assistants, will select some of the most intelligent men from their caste or from recommendations of others. The place to study was in the temple. Every section of the temple has several segments to study how to write, and also to study mathematics, medicines, music and arts. First, the teacher will show how to write like how we study in our schools today.

Before students enter the first day of the class, there will be a special ceremony. The offering ceremony dedicated for the God of Wisdom and Learning, Thoth, as well as the primordial Gods. The purpose of this ceremony was to mark the beginning of the learning and ask for guidance during the learning process and protection of the knowledge to be beneficial for the country and for the Gods.

During the ten years of learning process, all of the students will be able to do the three times daily rituals to the Gods in the temples. The ritual would start early morning before the sunrise, so they should wake up earlier and make their preparation to do the ceremony together with other fellow students in the temple. The offering included some leaves, flowers, food, beverages and fragrances. After the ritual, they will have breakfast with bread or loaf with beans porridge, wheat porridge, milk and tea.

When the lesson ended just before mid-day, they will prepare to do the mid-day temple offerings, purify the temple with the chanting of holy prayers and holy fragrances, or burning of incense.  The lesson will then continue in the afternoon and ends just before the twilight, where it will be time for the sunset prayers at the temple. At nighttime they will do some memorization of various subjects and autodidact learning. This will be continuously happening until the students graduate.

When they all passed the final stage of education, there were no sign of final exam on that time. All of the students were considered passed and ready to do the job to be a royal scribe. The graduation ceremony was with lots of magical scenes, from one to the other students by the headmasters, teachers and priests. The students will receive special prayers, amulets and awakening of the inside power of the students by chanting sacred scriptures. The awakening of the inner spirit during the graduation will start after the sunset ceremony and ends after midnight.

After the graduation, all of the new scribes will be ready to take their new post, where they will be distributed accordingly.

CURRICULUMS

They learned how to write and to read. The scribes learned about language, reading and writing in the very beginning. They will practice and master these subjects. They learned hieroglyphics character where there were more than 700 characters in hieroglyphic including objects, ideas, sounds, numbers, special signs and symbols. They also learned hieratic and demotic characters and alphabets.

The learned how to produce papyrus. As media of writing, the scribes need papyrus. They learned how to prepare and produce high quality of media writing ancient paper style roll of papyrus.

They learned to understand mathematics. After they mastered writing and reading they will learn about other subjects like mathematics, to understand the detailed scope and accurate calculation when they become a scribe.

They learned religion and prayers. The most important thing to be a scribe is to understand the sacred concept of religion, mastering in prayers so when they become a scribe they will understand and adapt with the culture of the current religion.

They learned history. To know history was paramount for the improvement of the nation and this will be helpful to better understand their past while advancing further their civilization.

They learned geography. Geography was part of the study during the time of the schooling. The ancient Egyptian has travelled as far as Greece, Sumerian, and Syria. They have knowledge about Lower Egypt and Upper Egypt, about the Nile and the vast deserts.

They learned and understand astronomy. Most of the scribes need to understand and master astronomy to calculate the timings, the phenomenon and other objects in the sky through observations and predictions. This allowed the ancient Egyptian to mark the seasons of the year and schedule their journey, to select the best time for ceremonies, festivals, wedding ceremonies, farming, starting the sacred works, etc.  They used lunar calendar system to make studying astronomy as one of the most important subjects.

They learned to play music. Music was an important part of the daily life in ancient Egypt. Most of the temple rituals, ceremonies and other scared rituals also included mystical and enchanting music.

They learned about medicine and health care. When they started learning about this subject, they moved to the temple of Kom Ombo. The venue for learning was at the back of the altar of this sacred temple, a small alley maybe enough for 30-50 students. They learned about natural medicine, the use of natural aphrodisiac, about surgery, childbirth and rearing, etc.

They learned about science and technology. There were speculations of many things in ancient Egypt and one was that they used a certain form of highly advanced technology to build the temple, with the use of electricity. They used red mercury for many purposes as well.

They learned about arts and cultures. Many forms of arts, dance, and sculptures were found artistically expressed in the temples, including the wall paintings in the tombs were amazing. This is the perfection of the art that they mastered for so many years through consistent learning and creativity of the people of Egypt.

They learned about anatomy of human beings and animals. The figures of the massive statues, sculptures are very precise and the proportion of the body anatomy is perfect for both human being and animal.

They learned about architecture. This is a must. Nobody can skip this subject. Many scribes also mastered architecture like Imhotep who created the steps of pyramid, and he was as well a scribe, medical expert, architect and a high priest during the reign of Pharaoh Djoser (reigned from 2709-2690 B.C.).

They learned about spiritual power, unseen power, magic and healing. The qualities of scribes were judged with these special talents of spiritual powers, unseen powers, magic powers (either black or white magic), and of course the healing power. This subject was given through vibration instruction and it depends on each individual student to develop this power later all by himself. This secret power will differentiate the individual student from the rest. This will include the power for anti weaponry, anti poison as well as elimination of self-knowledge.

They learned law. The scribes taught laws of the kingdom as later the scribe will also be the person who conducts the proceedings in court.

THE ROLES OF THE SCRIBES

The scribes were very important and had special placement in the kingdom. Their tasks included:

As a royal writer of holy scripts and texts. All of the holy writings, scripts and texts were written or copied by the scribes in individual or in group. They were also designated to write wills and legal contract, documentation for the people in the kingdom.

As a royal author of poem and literature. The stories and literatures were also important and written on the papyrus. Sometime they were asked to write poems for the royal family or important peoples in the kingdom.

As a writer and or designer of all of the writings, cartouches. The scribes designed the writings and the cartouches on the temple walls before the artist put those patterns with great thought, precision, focus and commitment on the temple walls.

As a tax collector. The scribe will oversee the collection of taxes. The collection of the taxes from the farmers will depend on the level of the water shown in the Nile meter available in every temple.

As an administrator of the kingdom. The scribe will do the job of documentation and archive the treasures of the kingdom, including smaller city, district and villages.

As a recorder of the kingdom. In this case, the scribes will record many things such as volume of rainfall, the water level of the Nile River, record the food stocks, distribution and supplies, record the medicine stocks, to carry out census of population, to record live stocks, record about the laborer, wine making, beer making, etc.

As a librarian. All of the scriptures, holy books, and papyrus are kept in library and maintained by scribes. Lots of papyrus rolls are survived until today because of the amazing work of the scribes.

As an architect. In-charge for the planning, surveying, supervising, inspecting of the construction of temples, houses, tombs, pyramids, etc.

As an advisor. One important job of the scribe was also to consult pharaohs and suggest some recommendations for the pharaohs to consider.

THOTH AND SESHAT

The God Dhwty (Djehuti) of Thoth (Greek) was the god of writing, learning, speaking, senses, wit, invention, and wisdom, one of the important deities in the ancient Egyptian pantheon. He appeared as a man-god wearing an ibis mask and carrying his writing pad and pen all the time, to record everything that was happening in this world and beyond.

He had also a very important rule in the underworld or afterlife because he was the only god who kept everybody’s record. He will record whatever you see, whatever you say, etc. He will be the key witness of the soul ‘Ba’ in the judgment of the dead in the ‘Hall of Two Truth’ with the result of the ‘weighing of the heart’ in judgment of Osiris; where he was the scribe who recorded every single act during the lifetime, recorded the confession of the dead who progressed into afterlife.

Seshat (also called the mistress of books) was more known to be the Goddess of writing, reading and science; she is either the daughter or the wife of Thoth. She recorded the life diary of each person on avocado tree leaves (persea tree).

DIFFERENT STYLE OF WRITINGS

There were three different way of writing in the ancient Egypt:

Hieroglyphic writing was used since 3500 B.C. The word hieroglyph came from the Greek word hieros (sacred) and glyphos (sign or word). The ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic was called ‘mdju netjer or mdju ntr’ (or words of the gods). There were more than 1000 hieroglyphic signs and symbols introduced during that era.

Hieratic writing was used alongside with the hieroglyphic just after the development of the hieroglyphs. The term of hieratic came from the Greek language ‘hieratika’ which means priestly writing or the way how the high priest writes during that time. This style of writing is a continuous writing or a cursive nature writing style with ligatures for number of characters.  The oldest hieratic script was found dated circa 1600 B.C. and it was interesting to know that this style of writing was used since then. The way to read the hieratic is from right to left.

Demotic writing was later developed, perhaps during the Kushite or Nubian Empire of the 25^th dynasty. During the reign of Psametik I, demotic writing became more popular and started to replace the hieratic style and became the official writing to be used for administrative, commercial texts, legal texts, etc.

SCRIBES AND THE PAPYRUS

The papyrus, used as the media for writing, surfaced in the ancient Egypt since about 3100 B.C. The development of the papyrus helped the scribes expressed their vision and talents faster as the papyrus was easier to carry and keep, but also easy to be destroyed. There are some manuscripts written on the papyrus that still remain in museums in many parts of the world. The ancient scribes were usually written on one side of the papyrus leaving the other side blank.

The discovery of papyrus writing allowed us to know better the past that immensely provide a deeper understanding of the incredible lifestyle of the ancient world, especially the Egyptian civilization.