Yet another picture of the treasury.

There were so many tombs like this carved into the hillside in Petra that after a while you almost didn’t notice them and started to look instead for signs of the hidden alien spacecraft that brought the Nabataeans to our planet.

A slightly better view of the “treasury” building in Petra. This also illustrates well the fact that taking pictures of things in Petra was almost impossible because either a) there is too much sunlight and your camera can’t deal with it, or b) there are a thousand people in front you also trying to take photographs and they’re blocking your sunlight.

Dad looks out over some hills near Petra.

This was our first view of the “treasury” building in Petra. It’s probably the most impressive facade in Petra. There are competing theories as to what what purpose the building served. The one thing that seems to be known for certain is that “The Treasury” was not, in fact, a treasury.

I tried to take a picture of the Martians in their natural environment but they’re shy and you’d be surprised how quickly those giant araneiform robots can move when they want to.

‘Nuff said.

I had to climb these stairs three times a week in the midday heat while rushing to a lecture during my first semester at KFUPM. They should install a chairlift for Westerners. You can see Khobar in the background.

This is the view from our front balcony at night. `Ferdaws’ means `paradise`, apparently. Go figure.

Dad and Marie engage in the often-derided pastime of rock-spotting. They can tick lapis arenaria magnia off their list now.