The ancient city of Petra is one of Jordan's national treasures and by far its best known tourist attraction. Located about three hours south of Amman, Petra is the legacy of the Nabataens, an industrious Arab people who settled in southern Jordan more than 2000 years ago.
Admired then for its refined culture, massive architecture and ingenious complex of dams and water channels, Petra is now a UNESCO world heritage site that enchants visitors from all corners of the globe.
Much of Petra's appeal comes from its spectacular setting deep inside a narrow desert gorge. The site is accessed by walking through a kilometer long chasm (or siq), the walls of which soar 200 meters upwards. Petra's most famous monument, the Treasury, appears dramatically at the end of the siq.
Used in the final sequence of the film "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade", the towering facade of the Treasury is only one of myriad archaeological wonders to be explored at Petra.
Various walks and climbs reveal literally hundreds of buildings, tombs, baths, funerary halls, temples, arched gateways, colonnaded streets and haunting rock drawings - as well as a 3000 seat open air amphitheatre circa, a gigantic first century Monastery and a modern archeological museum, all of which can be explored at leisure.
A modest shrine commemorating the death of Aaron, brother of Moses, was built in the 13th century by the Mamluke Sultan, high a top mount Aaron in the Sharah range.
Petra is one of the wonders of the Middle-Eastern world: a gigantic natural amphitheatre hidden in the rocks out of which a delicately coloured city with immense facades has been carved; it was lost for hundreds of years and only rediscovered in 1812.
The temples and caves of Petra rest high up above a chasm, with huge white rocks forming the Bab, or gate, of the Siq, the narrow entrance which towers over 21m (70ft) high. Until recently, the rock caves were still inhabited by Bedouins. Most of this unique city was built by the Nabatean Arabs in the fifth and sixth centuries BC as an important link in the caravan routes. It was added to by the Romans who carved out a huge theatre and, possibly, the spectacular classical facade of the Khazneh (treasury).
Away from the road, it is only possible to reach Petra on horseback. This city of rock stairs, rock streets, rock-carved tombs and dwellings and temples has among its other attractions the Qasr al-Bint castle shrine and the Al-Habis caves and museums; while a short distance away from the more commercialised site of Petra is Al-Barid where a number of tombs lie in solitude and tranquility among the rocks.
There is a rest house in Petra built against the rock wall near the beginning of the Siq, where it is advisable to book early in season, but is bitterly cold in winter.
A variety of hotels offer accommodation such as the following properties:
