Petra, Jordon

Location : Ma’an Jordan

Petra

Petra at Night

Petra is a historical and archaeological city Situated between the Red Sea and the Dead Sea and inhabited since prehistoric times, the rock-cut capital city of the Nabateans, became during Hellenistic and Roman times a major caravan centre for the incense of Arabia, the silks of China and the spices of India, a crossroads between Arabia, Egypt and Syria-Phoenicia. Petra is half-built, half-carved into the rock, and is surrounded by mountains riddled with passages and gorges. An ingenious water management system allowed extensive settlement of an essentially arid area during the Nabataean, Roman and Byzantine periods. It is one of the world's richest and largest archaeological sites set in a dominating red sandstone landscape.

The Outstanding Universal Value of Petra resides in the vast extent of elaborate tomb and temple architecture; religious high places; the remnant channels, tunnels and diversion dams that combined with a vast network of cisterns and reservoirs which controlled and conserved seasonal rains, and the extensive archaeological remains including of copper mining, temples, churches and other public buildings. The fusion of Hellenistic architectural facades with traditional Nabataean rock-cut temple/tombs including the Khasneh, the Urn Tomb, the Palace Tomb, the Corinthian Tomb and the Deir ("monastery") represents a unique artistic achievement and an outstanding architectural ensemble of the first centuries BC to AD. The varied archaeological remains and architectural monuments from prehistoric times to the medieval periods bear exceptional testimony to the now lost civilizations which succeeded each other at the site.

Also called Al-Batra in Arabic. The city has managed to 'wow' the world with its elaborate stone-cut architecture as well as water conduit system. The city is also fondly referred to as the 'Rose city' due to the color of the stone out of which it is carved.

* Below are a few interesting facts about Petra

1. Petra has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1985

2. Among the Petra's amazing architecture, The Treasury is the most popular. It is estimated to be over 2,000 years.

3. The Bedouin of the Arabian Desert have destroyed some of the most priceless carvings on the Treasury's walls. They used the carvings as target during their shooting practice.

4. The structures on most of the Petra Archaeological site have been weakened by the salt that is blown from the dead sea and which crystalizes on the building's columns.

5. Petra is though to have been built during the Byzantine Era of the 5th and 6th AD when Petra became an important Christian center.

6. Petra is home to over 800 carved tombs.

7. Petra is more popular for its 800 individual monuments that includes buildings, tombs, baths, funerary halls, temples, arched gateways, and colonnaded streets, that were mostly carved from the kaleidoscopic sandstone.

8. The city was first established in 312 BC; making it one of the oldest metropolises in the world.

9. It is in Petra that King Aretas called for the arrest of the biblian Apostle Paul after he was converted into Christianity.

10. Among the most popular monuments in Petra is the 2,100-pound sandstone bust of Dushara, Petra’s primary male deity.

Petra is a hidden gem that will take you through the history of Middle East like no other place. It easily rivals Jerusalem as a caretaker city of the Middle East history.