Finding the Garden of Eden

I got up early this morning so I could enter the park right when it opened at 6am. It was one of those very special moments as I would have the entire city to myself for a good two hours. Not even the non-drinking frowny face rock peddlers were out peddling their rocks at this hour.

I had the entire canyon to myself and could feel the walls talking to me.



There were far too many people here yesterday and I was not able to get the iconic shot of emerging from the canyon as the Treasury revealed itself, making it's presence known.



I was looking to explore new grounds and headed off the main thoroughfare finding that many of the cabbies still had their rig in the garage.

I started climbing up the right hand side to take in the views and watch the sunrise.





Looks like they really cleaned up the theater after the show last night.

Hey look, there is another person down there.

I first went into this tomb high above the city. Entering it and listening to the silence, letting it tell me the story of this site. When you are by yourself and free of distraction the energy of this site is very deep and immense across time.

I then went and sat on the ledge, letting the gentle wind carry me throughout the site showing me new places to investigate. What is it about the energy of the story of the Messiah, whoever it is to you, that runs so deep within our blood? Why does it continue to grow refusing to be forgotten? If you have a lot of little earthquakes no one really remembers them. But if you don't have the little ones then the energy builds up and explodes in a large quake that we remember for quite some time. Were we just void of a few good stories prior to this one?

After a while I turned around and found that I was no longer the observer but the one being observed.

I picked up a traveling companion for the rest of the morning.





A plethora of steps presented themselves to me, perhaps I should proceed along the path.

Wherever I was going must be important as they literally carved away the mountain in order to get there.

These rock faces had been cleared and I could only imagine they were much like a plot of land for sale, waiting for someone to build on them.

I found a few more living obelisk(s) which were amazing as this was no small mountain top. They had to move a lot of earth in order to create these.

This little girl then came over to sell me some rocks and I was again disappointed that she didn't have any beer either.

Remember that fella Moses I told you about when we saw his broken rock a few days ago? Across the mountain peak you can see a little white dome. That's where his brother Aaron is buried.

I finally reached the top and found the "High Place of Sacrifice" where they would smoke frankincense and sacrifice animals. There is some question if they sacrificed humans or not.



If I had my directions right then just over the ledge in the distance was the Treasury.

Looks like there is more stuff down the backside.



There was an interesting water channel that snaked it's way down the back side into this lion carving creating an amazing fountain back in the day.

This was clearly a well hidden and protected area reserved only for those who were worthy.



The tombs over here were insanely colorful and you could see that back in the day the water continued to snake it's way through out this secret garden.

I looked around and then it hit me. This was the Garden of Eden, or at least their representation of it. A beautiful place that only the wealthy were allowed to experience, they could immerse themselves at the very point of creation. Making them feel superior to the working peasants who were not even allowed a glimpse at this paradise. And then I thought maybe this story, not because there were not other stories, but maybe just that those other stories were suppressed. Being held back until the energy could no longer be contained. Much like large earthquakes, this energy finally exploded creating this single story line that would be fractured over time by the storytellers that moved it along. The people at the time very much needed this story to survive.

I then found another tomb that appeared to have all of its tenants evicted.



The ruins kept going and so did I, however it was looking more and more like the local Bedouin suburb instead of the park.



Many of the tombs have been re-purposed, for example this one was a chicken coup. You can tell because it only has two doors. If it had four doors it would be a chicken sedan.

This one is where they housed their goats and you didn't even have to look inside to know that you just had to get within the perimeter of the smell.

Looks like over there is the local laundromat.

I think I might be on the bad side of town as many of the homes here had their windows and doors boarded up.

I then came across kid after kid after kid and they all came up to me and said, "Give me a biscuit". At first I thought how strange, I'm not carrying any biscuits. But then I thought, a lot more Europeans than Americans travel here and they are probably really just asking for a cookie.





I said farewell to the locals and started back as it was now a very, very long walk. Not just back to the park but all the way through the park to get to the hotel. But with all this exercise I'll be able to double up on my Petra or Philadelphia beer consumption tonight, I guess it doesn't really matter which one.