Petra is a famous archaeological site in Jordan's southwestern desert. Dating to around 300 B.C., it was the capital of the Nabatean Kingdom. Petra is famous for its rock-cut architecture and water conduit system, Petra is also called the 'Rose City' because of the colour of the stone from which it is carved. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1985. Petra was built by the Nabateans in what is now southern Jordan, while the civilization was amassing great wealth trading with its Greek and Persian contemporaries around 150BC. Much later, following the breakup of the Roman Empire, Petra became a provincial capital under the Byzantine Empire. But when that in turn fell to Muslim forces in the seventh century, Petra disappeared. In ruins after a series of earthquakes, it came to be known as Wadi Musa-the Valley of Moses. The ancient city of Petra in Jordan became one of the 7 New Wonders of the World when it was chosen in 2007 by a vote of 100 million people. The city's carved rose-red sandstone rock facades, tombs, and temples became known around the world with its appearance in Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade in 1989. Petra is Smetimes Called the 'Lost City', In spite of its being such an important city in antiquity, after the 14th century AD, Petra was completely lost to the western world. You can only enter Petra by buying tickets at the Petra visitors' centre in Wadi Musa, the closest town. Once you're at the site (2km from visitors' centre), you enter through a rocky passage with very high walls called the Siq - you can do this on foot, or on horseback (horses are hired from the visitor centre). The caves, temples, and tombs of Petra reveal an impressive civilization. The “Rose City” is a honeycomb of hand-hewn caves, temples, and tombs carved from blushing pink sandstone in the high desert of Jordan some 2,000 years ago. Hidden by time and shifting sand, Petra tells of a lost civilization.
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