Petra is classified as one of the "new wonders of the world". Perhaps you’ve seen it featured in National Geographic or on the Discovery Channel.
Petra is a small city that served as the capital of the Nabataeans from roughly 300 B.C. to 100 A.D., and was the center of their caravan trade. Enclosed by towering rocks, Petra possessed the advantages of a fortress, and controlled the main commercial routes which passed through it.
Petra is a small city that served as the capital of the Nabataeans from roughly 300 B.C. to 100 A.D., and was the center of their caravan trade. Enclosed by towering rocks, Petra possessed the advantages of a fortress, and controlled the main commercial routes which passed through it.
More importantly to modern-people, it is the site of a multitude of awe-inspiring carvings made in the tall red-rock cliffs that line the two-mile stretch of a gorge in which it is located. It is a spectacular sight, and we spent the entire day there on Wednesday, visiting the sites and attending a lecture from a Jordanian historian
The entrance to it leads steeply down through another gorge, a mile-long and even darker and more narrow one (in places only ten feet wide) called the “Siq”. At the end of the narrow gorge, you suddenly are discharged into the valley and are confronted with Petra's most elaborate ruin, "the Treasury", carved into the sandstone cliff directly in front of you. From there, the ancient city stretches two miles to the right, with one spectacular building after another carved into the tall cliffs. Quite breathtaking. (Everyone mentions that this was the site that one of the "Indiana Jones" movies was filmed at, but I don't remember it myself.)
The entrance to it leads steeply down through another gorge, a mile-long and even darker and more narrow one (in places only ten feet wide) called the “Siq”. At the end of the narrow gorge, you suddenly are discharged into the valley and are confronted with Petra's most elaborate ruin, "the Treasury", carved into the sandstone cliff directly in front of you. From there, the ancient city stretches two miles to the right, with one spectacular building after another carved into the tall cliffs. Quite breathtaking. (Everyone mentions that this was the site that one of the "Indiana Jones" movies was filmed at, but I don't remember it myself.)
I took over 200 pictures here today at Petra (thanks O’Keefe kids), but will leave you with these of the Treasury, to give you some sense of how spectacular this place is.
Love the last picture you dad!
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