December 15, 2011
Thursday Geology Picture: Sandstone Statues in the Petra Siq
Posted by Evelyn Mervine

Remnants of ancient statues carved out of the sandstone walls of the Petra Siq, Jordan, August 2007.
Geology picture-a-day week continues here at Georneys. Today’s geology picture comes from one of my favorite places on Earth: Petra, Jordan. Petra is an ancient Nabatean city nestled in a broad valley that is protected by steep sandstone terrain. Petra is accessed by the Siq, a narrow canyon through the sandstone. The geology of the Siq is impressive enough: the walls of the canyon reveal beautiful, red rose colored sandstone which contains cross-bedding, concretions, quartz veins, and other interesting textures. However, the Siq is made even more impressive by the archaeological artifacts it contains: ancient water aquaducts that run along the sides of the canyon (see the background of the above picture), windswept stairs leading to small niches carved out of the rock, and even remnants of what must have been large and impressive statues. In the picture above, you can see the remnants of a sandstone statue of a man leading a camel– but only feet and hooves remain. The small archaeological artifacts found in the Siq hint at the impressive wonders that are found within the city of Petra itself; the Siq teases visitors and leads them along in anticipation.
For those of you who have never heard of the Petra or the Siq before, you might recognize the end of the Siq as well as the impressive Al-Khasnah or “The Treasury” building from the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Petra and The Treasury were also visited by my favorite cartoon explorer: Tintin! Speaking of Tintin, is anyone else excited for the Tintin movie that’s coming out very soon? I am!
Here’s what Tintin saw when he reached the end of the Siq:

Tintin's view of The Treasury. Photograph: Hergé/Moulinsart 2010. Image taken from here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2010/oct/19/tintin-adventure-jordan-petra
And here’s what I saw in 2007 when I reached the end of the Siq:
Petra is a truly remarkable place, both in terms of geology and archaeology. I could spend days upon days there. Here’s a few more pictures from my 2007 visit to Petra.
And, in case you missed them, here’s my other geology pictures from this week: Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. If you follow my twitter feed, I’ve been trying to retweet the geology pictures posted by other geobloggers. If you haven’t already, feel free to join geology picture-a-day week, even if you missed the first part of the week. The more geology pictures, the better!
My landscape is a little less exotic:
http://pascals-puppy.blogspot.com/2011/12/geology-photos-day-4-unintentionally.html
I went for nice and sunny in mine: http://jazinator.blogspot.com/2011/12/geology-photo-of-day-part-4.html
Wow- great panorama!
Thanks, I think it is my favorite one so far that I have taken.
I wouldn’t get too excited over Tintin, I was disappointed by it…
Here is my fourth contribution:
http://www.science20.com/tuff_guy/blog/thursday_geophoto_isle_skye-85587
Oh, no! That’s too bad about the Tintin movie. I’ll see it anyway. I do love the old animated Tintin cartoons that used to run on Nickelodeon. Those were actually pretty good!
I started reading the original books, to help learn French (that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it), so I got really excited by the film. It’s just a bit too “Hollywood Blockbuster”, doesn’t quite have the same feel as the books.
[…] Here are some more pictures from my 2011 visit to Red Rock Canyon. I never did write up a post about the geology of Red Rock Canyon, but I promise to do so sometime! And, in case you missed them, here are my other geology pictures from this week: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. […]
Note that in the frame from Tintin the Treasury has three columns. One column was reconstructed and the original is still on the ground.
hey you should post the photograph of what happened on the WAY to Petra last time. A blog about travelling and being a woman in the Middle East would be rather nice. Not perhaps “geology” but you know women scientists have to get to the geology. I know you have had good experiences with your travel. And that photograph of you with your lunch buddies is one of my favorites.
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