Petra

Petra is an archaeological site in Arabah, Aqaba Governorate, Jordan.

The site remained unknown to the Western world until 1812, when it was discovered by Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt. It was famously described as “a rose-red city half as old as time” in a Newdigate prize-winning sonnet by John William Burgon. UNESCO has described it as “one of the most precious cultural properties of man’s cultural heritage.”In 1985, Petra was designated a World Heritage Site. It is one of the “New Seven Wonders of the World” as determined by the New Open World Corporation

Petra is a famous city carved out of stone, hidden by towering sandstone mountains in Jordan. Although uninhabited today, during ancient times, it was an important city, and was the main city of an ancient people called the Nabataens, who lived in southern Jordan, Canaan and the northern part of Arabia, and created a kingdom with its capital at Petra. Lying in the centre of an ancient caravan trade routes, Petra benefited from the resulting commerce. Caravans pass through Petra for Giza in the south, Bosra and Damascus in the north, Aqaba on the Red Sea, and eastward to the Persian Gulf.

Until they settled at Petra, the Nabateans were largely nomadic. They founded Petra around the 6th century BC and ruled over it until AD 100, when the Romans conquered Petra. In AD 106 it was absorbed into the Roman Empire and was known as Arabia Petraea. Although having lost its autonomy, Petra continued to flourish for another one hundred years. It then began to decline when trade routes changed. An earthquake in AD363 devastated Petra and destroyed its waterworks. Petra lay in ruins until the 12th century, when the Crusaders occupied it and built a citadel there. After they were gone, Petra was left to its native inhabitants. It was first seen by a Westerner in 1812, when Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt discovered it. Petra was made popular in recent times by the Indiana Jones movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Although it is Petra's most elaborate ruin, Al Khazneh is by no means the only sight worth visiting. There are more tombs and chambers on the cliffs surrounding Al Khazneh. The smaller tombs look like black holes on the cliff walls. On the left of Al Khazneh to the left, at the foot of a mountain called en-Nejr, is an amphitheatre that can accommodate up to 8000 people. There are more tombs on the rock walls behind it. When the amphitheatre was carved, it was probably cut into some of the existing tombs as well.
basin among the mountains which form the eastern flank of Arabah (Wadi Araba), the large valley running from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba.