PETRA, JORDAN

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Petra, the world wonder, is without a doubt Jordan’s most valuable treasure and greatest tourist attraction.

It is a vast, 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.

For 600 years it was thought that this city, in the middle of the Jordan desert, was legendary like Atlantis or Troy.

The Swiss explorer that managed to find it had to travel through impressive paths as this, among mountains of stone.

Imagine his emotion when, upon arriving for the first time, saw this in the 19th century!

The Palace of Petra, a temple in Greek style, is 130 feet tall. It was carved completely from rock.

But the palace is only one among the the many magnificent constructions in Petra, all carved from rock.

Petra was constructed in the 6th century B.C. In 60 A.D. Petra was conquered by the Roman Empire.

Petra was used for the final scene in the movie "Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade".

In the year 551, an earthquake destroyed almost all of the city, and Petra was never inhabited again.

This theater, in Greek-Roman style, had seating for 4,000 people.