This legendary site tucked into the sandstone canyons of a valley running from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba – one of those places, in fact, you could almost believe was invented as a set for an exotic Indiana Jones movie. And while Petra did in fact make a key and dramatic appearance in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, this is no film set. Instead, this fabled UNESCO World Heritage Site is a city hewn out of the living rock, with a history stretching back to the 2nd century CE but abandoned around the 7th century and lost to the outside world until the 19th century. Truly one of the wonders of the world in every sense.
Popular as an overnight excursion and even day trip from both Jordan’s capital Amman and Israel cities like Jerusalem and Iberia gateway Tel Aviv (an hour’s drive away), the city known to its founders, the Arab Nabateans, as Raqeem covers 264 square kilometres (102 sq. miles) tucked behind towering red sandstone formations amidst the arid badlands of southern Jordan, traditionally inhabited by Bedouin tribes who now make receiving, guiding, and feeding tourists a significant part of their income.
The famous view we all recognise, the so-called Treasury (pictured here) with its classical Hellenic columns, reached at the end of the Siq, a winding passageway through a narrow, 600-foot-tall canyon, is just the most iconic corner of this complex – at its peak, home to more than 30,000 – at the centre of a vast trading empire particularly specialising in frankincense and myrrh.
Read more in my post Petra, Jordan´s Jawdropping Jewel.
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