Today we went to the ancient city of Petra, situated about two hours by road from Aqaba. It is about 2 km walk from where cars could take you, but well worth the effort. The ruins were interesting and we could see the remains of a sophisticated civilization that existed prior to the birth of Jesus. There was so much to see: the carvings, the remains of buildings, the tall columns, the amphitheatre, the tombs and so much more. It was exciting to be so close to the birth place three major Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

There was also the expected hype about Indiana Jones (with Sean Connery and Harrison Ford) which was filmed here. One can of course ride a camel, buy souvenirs or do any touristy thing if one wanted to.

On our way, we noticed a lot of construction in the City of Aqaba. Did they discover oil, someone wondered. No, the guide said, they discovered America.

Our guide was a Cambridge-educated engineer, doing this as a hobby. He gave us a lecture on Arab-Israeli conflict. He said that Arabs are not anti-Semites, the conflict is not between Muslims and Jews but between the Arabs/Palestinians and the state of Israel which was artificially carved out of the Middle East, for political reasons by the British. Religions are not in conflict in the Middle East. For example, he himself was a Christian. Jews have a right to be in the Middle East for various reasons: they were persecuted all over the world and the land is where they were from and they had as much right to be here as anyone. The problem is establishing a separate state and displacing of Palestinians.