Shobak Castle and 'The Back Trail' to Petra: Jordan Part 3

A Crusader Castle and a Spectacular Desert Walk

Please note, this is not my Petra post, that's the next one.

Jordan

South from Amman

Our first visit of the day was to be at Shobak (often Shoubak), 200km south of Amman so it was another 8 o’clock start, and another opportunity for the breakfast buffet to be unready half an hour after the official start time - an opportunity seized with both hands.

Shobak is 30km north of Petra

K arrived and with a breakfast of some sort inside us we set off, moving swiftly south on dual carriageways - when not impeded by the recurring road works. Desert scenery can be wonderful, but not always, this was about as dull as it gets.

A boring bit of desert south of Amman

After an hour we stopped for coffee at a well set-up service station boasting a full array of the sort of goods deemed appropriate for tourists.

A dull journey? I am reduced to showing you pictures of me drinking coffee

Back on the road, the scenery did not improve immediately…

Wow, a bend!

….but as we rolled on past truck stops and services the land became markedly less flat and monochrome.

Truck stop quite a long way south of Amman

Shobak Castle (Montréal)

K swung right off the main highway onto what he called his ‘secret route’. I am unconvinced of its‘secrecy’, but our first view of Shobak Castle was worth a detour.

Shobak Castle

The contiguous small towns of Al Jaya, Shobak and Nejel are lined up along the nearby ridge, but as we looped round the back we could see older abandoned dwellings in the valley below the castle.

Abandoned dwellings in the valley below Shobak Castle

A few minutes later we stopped to admire what the owner claims to be the world’s smallest hotel. I am not sure I would want to spend the night in an idiosyncratically decorated VW beetle,…

The world's smallest hotel near Shobak Castle

…but I admit it has a fine view of the castle.

Shobak Castke from the world's smallest hotel

The castle was built in 1115 by King Baldwin I, the first crusader King of Jerusalem who named it Montréal. At the time Baldwin was taking a jaunt through the distant parts he claimed were within his Kingdom. He declared that the area east and south of the Dead Sea, down to the Gulf of Aqaba was now the Lordship of Oultrejordain, the seat being first at Montréal and later at Kerak a little to the north. It is was a remote, sparsely populated and ill-defined area, which allowed the Lord to be semi-autonomous. Much of the land was simultaneously claimed by the Sultan of Damascus but Lord and Sultan achieved a modus vivendi by keeping out of each other’s way.

The Lordship of Oultrejourdain at its maximum extent (Thanks Wikipedia and Erenow)
The borders are approximate and were always vague. Aqaba was known as Ayla until the late medieval period

From inside there is rather less left of the castle than might be imagined from a distant view, or even from just outside….

Outside Shobak Castle

…but it was undoubtedly important.

Inside Shobak Castle

Like Ajloun yesterday, there is no open space within the walls, and despite the presence of some towers and arches it is now largely a jumble of stones.

Shobak Castle

An internal water supply, important in English castles of this vintage, was essential in this arid country and a tunnel was dug through the hill to two spring-fed cisterns below.

Saladin took the castle in 1189 after a two-year siege during which the defenders allegedly sold their wives and children for food and went blind from lack of salt. When they eventually surrendered Saladin cemented his reputation for chivalry by returning their families to them.

Shobak Castle

The castle was stormed in 1261 by the Mamluk Sultan Baybars, bringing it under the control of Egypt.

The Mamluk Public Buildings, Shobak Castle

The Mamluks were responsible for much of the surviving curtain wall and the Arabic inscriptions on it.

Arabic inscriptions on the curtain wall, Shobak Castle

The castle sits on an outlying hill from the main Edom Plateau. Although the immediate surroundings look arid, the plateau - less than a kilometre distant and with the modern town of Shobak on its western edge - is a fertile, fruit growing area. At 1,330m (4,360ft) there is often winter snow and Shobak’s expected daily high in November is 13°C; as the photos suggest it was more than ten degrees warmer than that when we visited.

Little Petra

Siq Al Barid (Cold Canyon), better known as Little Petra, a half hour drive south of Shobak, is an outpost of the main Petra UNESCO World Heritage Site.

From Shobak to Little Petra

Nabataeans

The Nabataeans were an Arab people who emerged in the 4th century BCE and dominated the Northern Arabia/Southern Levant area from the Red Sea to the Euphrates until the Romans arrived in 106 CE. With no defined borders they controlled a trading network centred on strings of fertile oases, with their capital, if they had one, assumed to have been Raqmu – now known as Petra. They produced high quality pottery and had a distinctive ceremonial architecture, hacking tombs and temples from the rock and giving them elaborate façades.

A Nabataean building hacked from the stone, Little Petra

Believed to have been built in the first 1st century CE probably to accommodate visiting traders, the site is small and may not have the majesty of Petra but it is less crowded and is free to visit.

The outer area and car park is full of stalls selling tourist tat in a low-key sort of way. There was one typical Nabataean building (above) and a herd of goats demonstrating how nimble they are over steep rocky gound. I have no idea what they were doing up there, there is nothing for them to eat, but I would never question goatly wisdom.

Goats, Little Petra

From the car park a narrow defile leads into the small canyon of Little Petra.

The narrow defile into Little Petra

Inside are more stalls…

Inside Little Petra

….and several Nabataean façades the largest and most important being the triclinium. A triclinium is where the Roman went to dine with their dead - a rather odd habit. In 2010 archaeologists discovered a biclinium – a dining room with a couch for two – with high quality Hellenistic frescoes; its either not open or we failed to find it.

The Triclinium, Litte Petra

The Back Trail to Petra

According to our itinerary we should walk from here to Petra entering via the ‘monastery’ (5km). We were confused, tomorrow had been set aside for Petra and we did not want to pre-empt the usual dramatic arrival through the long narrow defile of the siq. K had been uncharacteristically tight-lipped about the arrangements - and then he drove us out of Little Petra.

I should have had faith; local travel companies have long experience and know exactly what they are doing. A short distance away, on the top of the plateau he stopped next to a car parked by the roadside. After introducing us to Ali, the passenger in the car, he said ‘have a nice walk, see you in two days,’ or words to that effect and left.

We followed Ali into the desert on the back trail to Petra. He was a large man but surprisingly light on his feet, one of nature’s prop forwards who had the misfortune to be born in a country where Rugby is unknown.

Lynne and Ali set off into the desert towards Petra

He pointed out a field to our right where the local villagers sow cereals. It never grows enough be worth to harvesting, but their livestock graze here when they need extra nutrition.

Not the most promising cereal crop I have ever seen - walking to Petra

A little further on we passed a camel racing circuit,…

Camel racing circuit on the way to Petra

…then headed off into the desert on a track…

Deeper into the desert - two prop forwards in search of a hooker
(American readers should be aware that in British English that is an entirely innocent Rugby Football related observation)

No discernable path here on the Back Trail to Petra

Lonely Planet describe this ‘back trail' as a ‘rewarding hike’ and points out that a guide is essential as the route can be hard to follow, and you also need a valid ticket for Petra which will be checked en route. We had our guide – and we would, literally, have been lost without him – and he had our tickets. The check-point, however was deserted though a hole-punch had been placed on the floor in the doorway so we could punch our own tickets.

Ali picked up the hole-punch and watched with amusement as it disassembled itself in his hand. He did his conscientious best to create the appropriate hole, eventually resorting to a sharp stick.

Ali punches holes - the Back Trail to Petra

The next stage of the journey took us into canyons….

Into canyons on the Back Trail to Petra

…along the base of rock walls…

Along the base of rock walls, on the Back Trail to Petra

…past a surprisingly extensive outbursts of desert tulips - they will flower in their own good time -…

Dersert tulips on the Back Trail to Petra

…and up and down rough-hewn steps.

Rough-hewn steps on the Back Trail to Petra

In the midst of all this wilderness we encountered a tea shop of sorts; a wooden shed, seats shaded by awnings and trestle tables groaning under the weight of ‘tourist tat’. There was even a dog.

Tea shop dog on the Back Trail to Petra

We paused for refreshment, wondered how it all got there – there must have been 4WD access somewhere – and tried to bargain for some of their Roman/Nabataean coins. We would have liked some of the larger examples but they would not drop below £40 or £50 each, even for those in poor condition.

We continued; fine views abounded…

Fine views on the Back Trail to Petra

…there were high points to stand on….

The Back Trail to Petra

….and rough paths to follow...

Rough paths on the Back Trail to Petra

… while above us the sun had started to head for the horizon – the currant bun sets early in Jordan.

The sun is getting low on the Back Trail to Petra

The 'Monastery', Petra

About 80 minutes after our refreshment break we caught our first sight of something that was distinctly man made.

First glimpse of the Monastery, Petra

The Monastery marks the edge of Petra proper and was built in the 3rd century BCE as a Nabataean tomb. Crosses carved on the walls suggest it might have been repurposed as a church in Byzantine times while caves in the surrounding area were used by Christian hermits. but the ‘Monastery’ has never actually been a monastery. The courtyard was once surrounded by columns and used for sacred ceremonies, though what they were, no one know.

The Monastery, Petra
The figure, bottom right, gives some idea of the massive scale

Lonely Planet calls the Monastery one of the legendary monuments of Petra (can a real building be ‘legendary’?) but also one of the less visited, as it is over 800 rock-cut steps above the Petra basin. We had walked 5km to reach the Monastery, and it slowly dawned on us that we had to walk a further 5km to get out – and negotiate all those steps. But first we had to get to them.

The Descent into Petra

Starting the descent towards Petra

The descent was a long and sometime painful slog. We were frequently passed by men with donkeys and horses, all of whom wanted to hire out a mount and exaggerated the time and distance we still had to go. The donkeys in particular looked too frail to carry someone of my weight down such a steep path, and the sliding of iron-shod hooves on time-polished stone made safety a concern; anyway, I have a fur allergy and the prospect of several days of allergic conjunctivitis was enough to keep me walking.

We passed the Lion Tomb; a triclinium defended by two weather beaten lions…

The Lion Tomb, Petra

…kept on plodding and eventually made it to flat ground.

Flat ground at last, Petra basin

We only touched the main valley before turning onto a path leading to a tarmac road to Uum Sayhoun, a village created in 1985 for those displaced from the archaeological site. The road does not appear on most tourist maps, but it was a real sting in the tail, a long uphill kilometre to the Petra check-point from where a car would take us to Wadi Musa and our hotel.

A steady trickle of vehicles passed us, stall holders and café owners going home from work. Ali apologised, ‘they are not allowed to give lifts,’ he explained. Lynne was flagging (and so was I, but I shall not mention it) and eventually Ali took pity on her and flagged down a passing friend urging us to get in quickly before anybody saw. His friend drove us 500m up the road, stopping out of sight of the checkpoint and leaving us to walk the last 100m. By now the sun had set and we could see the lights of Wadi Musa twinkling in the next valley.

The lights of Wadi Musa

Wadi Musa

We did not have to wait long for the car. Wadi Musa - the Valley of Moses where the patriarch struck water from the rock for his parched followers (allegedly) – has grown into the tourist town servicing Petra. Ali dropped us at our hotel. ‘What time tomorrow?’ we asked. ‘7 o’clock,’ he answered. I checked his face to see if he was joking, he wasn’t. ‘Only way to beat the crowds,’ he explained.

We were too tired to go out again, and it seemed a pleasant modern hotel so we signed up for the evening buffet. It had been a long hot day and we had gone without lunch, but food was number three on my mind, after a shower and a cold beer – I had checked, the hotel sold alcohol.

After a refreshing shower we found our way to the restaurant where a girl brought the drinks menu. The alcoholic selection had been taped over it, all that was on offer was alcohol free beer. Some zero alcohol beers are quite acceptable, but this one resembled the borderline unpleasant ‘Islamic beers’ I had endured in Iran - unfermented malt and no hops. And the buffet was worse! Any chef who serves up white sticks with no discernible flavour and the consistency of haribo and labels it ‘cauliflower’ should reconsider their choice of career.

And so an excellent day came to a rather miserable end – redeemed by a glass of Heathrow Airport duty free.

I later learned it was the Prophet’s birthday, a day nobody in Jordan would be buying a beer. I should have known that.

Jordan
Part 1: Amman
Part 2: Ajloun and Jerash
Part 3: Shobak Castle and the Back Trail to Petra
Part 4: Petra
Part 5: Wadi Rum
Part 6: Swimming in the Dead Sea

THE END