A world wonder, Petra is without a doubt Jordan’s most valuable treasure and the greatest tourist attraction.
It is a vast, unique city, carved into the sheer rock face by the Nabataeans, an industrious Arab civilization 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.
The Nabataean Kingdom existed for centuries, and Petra became widely admired for its refind culture, massive architecture and ingenious complex of dams and water
channels. Ultimately, however, the Roman Emperor Trajan annexed the Kingdom. By the 14th century, Petra was completely lost to the West, and so it remained for almost 300 years. Then in 1812, a Swiss traveller, Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, persuaded his guide to take him to the site of the rumoured 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.” In order to preserve Petra, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, all tourist facilities have been located in the town of Wadi Musa, next to the entrance of the site.
The main attraction of Petra is naturally the city itself. A one-day visit is an absolute minimum, and a week will still leave many areas unexplored. Maps and excellent guidebooks are for sale at the entrance of the Petra site, and tour guides are available to take you through the ancient city. You can hire a horse or horse-drawn carriages to take you from the main entrance through the siq to the Treasury. For elderly and handicapped tourists, the Visitors’ Centre can issue a special permit for an extra fee, so that the carriages can go inside Petra itself to its main attractions.
After you have passed the Siq, once inside the actual city, hire a donkey or, for the more adventurous, be led on camelback – it is easier than you may think, and surprisingly comfortable! Remember to use caution, as the Petra site is large and can involve some fairly steep climbs! Petra’s most famous monument, the Treasury or Al-Khazneh, appears dramatically at the end of Siq. Used in the final sequence of the film indiana joes and the last Crusade, this towering façade is only the first of Petra’s secrets.
Various walks and climbs reveal hundreds of rock carved tombs and temple façades, funerary halls and rock reliefs-enough to keep you here for many days.
You will find a 3,000 seat theatre from the early 1st century AD, a Palace Tomb in the Roman style, and Qasr Al-Bint, the only free standing building that survived in this ancient city.
A climb of over 900 rock-cut steps will bring you to what most visitors consider their highlight – a gigantic 1st century Deir (Monastery).
