Petra Jordan

Petra (from Greek for 'rock') is an archaeological city in southern Jordan — the capital of the Nabataean Kingdom (4th century BCE to 1st century CE). The city was carved directly into the rose-red sandstone cliffs of the Jordanian desert, with its most famous structure, the Treasury (Al-Khazneh), cut into the cliff face with extraordinary precision and decorated with Hellenistic-style columns and reliefs. The city remained unknown to the Western world until 1812, when Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt learned of its existence from local Bedouin. Petra is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the New Seven Wonders of the World (2007). The Siq — a narrow 1.2 km canyon winding between 200m rock walls — is the dramatic entrance to the city, emerging suddenly at the Treasury. The Nabataeans controlled the incense trade routes through this strategically located crossroads; their engineering feat — water channels, cisterns, and dams enabling survival in desert — is as impressive as their architecture.