Even larger than the Treasury is Al Deir, the Monastery. It was a pagan temple until the fourth century AD when Christians started using it for worship. Reaching the Monastery on foot requires a steep climb up 800 steps cut into the rock. Foot-weary visitors have other options. For a real adventure, they can take a camel ride through the Outer Siq.
Every step is like the jolting motion of a new driver learning to shift into first gear.
A tad more comfortable are the horse and carriage rides that take passengers in and out of the Siq. From the entry gate to the beginning of the gorge and back again, the visitor can travel on horseback. Another hour south of Petra is Wadi Rum, a haunting landscape of sheer pinnacles brushed by a pallet of colors that rises from broad valleys of windswept desert sand. Bedouins, with their camels, sheep and goats, are a common sight. Our group toured the area in a Land Rover.