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Petra
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Jordan abounds in archaeological riches, from Neolithic ruins to the desert castles of Omayyad princes. Chiefs among these national treasures is the soul-stirring, rose-red city of Petra, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Petra is the legacy of the Nabataeans, an industrious Arab people who settled in south Jordan more than 2,000 years ago. From a hidden staging post, they dominated the trade routes of ancient Arabia, levying tolls and sheltering caravans laden with Indian spices and silks, African ivory and animal hides.
The Nabataean Kingdom endured for centuries, and Petra became widely admired for its refined culture, massive architecture and ingenious complex of dams and water channels. Ultimately, however, the Roman Emperor Trajan annexed the kingdom, and myriad rulers followed in his wake. By the 16th Century, Petra was completely lost to the West, and so it remained for almost 300 years. Then in 1812, a Swiss traveler named Johann Ludwig Burckhardt persuaded his guide to take him to the site of the rumored lost city. Secretly making notes and sketches, he wrote, "it seems very probable that the ruins at Wadi Musa are those of the ancient Petra" Much of Petra's appeal comes from its spectacular setting deep inside a narrow desert gorge. From the main entrance, you walk into the chasm, or siq, that ripped through the rock in a prehistoric quake.
Threading your way between the cliff walls as they soar to 200 meters, you pass inscriptions in ancient languages and rock-cut chambers carved into the whorls of sandstone.
