Travel and Explore The World

Visiting Jordan: Exploring Petra

A little history: Petra is a unique city, carved into the sheer

rock face by the Nabataeans, an industrious

Arab people who settled here more than 2000 years ago,

turning it into an important junction for the silk, spice and other

trade routes that linked China, India and southern

Arabia with Egypt, Syria, Greece and Rome.

Petra is sometimes called the ‘Lost City’. In spite of its being such an

important city in the ancient times, after the 14th century AD,

Petra was completely lost to the western world.

It was rediscovered in 1812 by the a Swiss traveler.

The ancient city of Petra was originally founded in the 6th Century BC, when it was founded as part of an effort by a tribe of Bedouins known as the Nabataeans. Over the centuries they built up a trade empire and used the city as their capital. Later it was conquered by the Romans and eventually abandoned altogether. As the centuries passed it was all but forgotten, until it was rediscovered by explorer Johann Ludwig in 1812.

Passing Aqaba, Jordan on the way to Petra

Goats on the road….

Wade Rum in the distance…

Images from Jordan…

The corridor to Petra from the distance…

Petra lies on the slope of Mount Hor in a 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.

This is how we enter Petra…

At the entrance…

Walking into Petra…

Entrance to the city is through the Siq, a narrow corridor, over 1 kilometer in length, which is surrounded on either side by amazing 80 m high cliffs. Just walking through the Siq is breathtaking. The colors and formations of the rocks are incredible. As I reached the end of the Siq I caught the first glimpse of Al-Khazneh (Treasury).

Water system in Petra (right below)

First glimpse of the Great Temple of Petra – The Treasury or ‘Al-Khazneh’

Al-Khazneh is a massive façade, 30m wide and 43m high, carved out of the pink rock-face. It was carved in the early 1st century as the tomb of an important Nabataean king.