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Petra
The giant red mountains and vast mausoleums of a departed race
have nothing in common with modern civilization, and ask nothing
of it except to be appreciated at their true value - as one of
the greatest wonders ever wrought by Nature and Man.
Although much has been written about Petra, nothing really
prepares you for this amazing place. It has to be seen to be
believed. It is without doubt Jordan’s most valuable treasure
and greatest tourist attraction.
It is a vast, unique city,
carved into the sheer rock face by the Nabataeans, an
industrious Arab people who settled here more than 2000 years
ago, turning it into an important junction for the silk, spice
and other trade routes that linked China, India and southern
Arabia with Egypt, Syria, Greece and Rome. Entrance to the city is through the Siq, a narrow gorge, over 1
kilometre in length, which is flanked on either side by soaring,
80 metres high cliffs. Just walking through the Siq is an
experience in itself. The colours and formations of the rocks
are dazzling. As you reach the end of the Siq you will catch
your first glimpse of Al-Khazneh (Treasury).
This is an awe-inspiring experience. A massive façade, 30m wide
and 43m high, carved out of the sheer, dusky pink, rock-face and
dwarfing everything around it. It was carved in the early 1st
century as the tomb of an important Nabataean king and
represents the engineering genius of these ancient people.
The Treasury is just the first of the many wonders that make up
Petra. You will need at least four or five days to really
explore everything here. As you enter the Petra valley you will
be overwhelmed by the natural beauty of this place and its
outstanding architectural achievements. There are hundreds of
elaborate rock-cut tombs with intricate carvings - unlike the
houses, which were destroyed mostly by earthquakes, the tombs
were carved to last throughout the afterlife and 500 have
survived, empty but bewitching as you file past their dark
openings.
Here also is a massive Nabataean-built, Roman-style theatre,
which could seat 3,000 people. There are obelisks, temples,
sacrificial altars and colonnaded streets, and high above,
overlooking the valley, is the impressive Ad-Deir Monastery – a
flight of 800 rock cut steps takes you there.
Within the site there are also two excellent museums; the Petra
Archaeological Museum and the Petra Nabataean Museum both of
which represent finds from excavations in the Petra region and
an insight into Petra's colourful past.
Inside the site, several artisans from the town of Wadi Musa and
a nearby Bedouin settlement have set up small stalls selling
local handicrafts, such as pottery and Bedouin jewellery and
bottles of striated multi-coloured sands from the area.
It is not permitted for motorized vehicles to enter the site.
But if you don’t want to walk, you can hire a horse or a
horse-drawn carriage to take you through the one kilometre Siq.
For the elderly and/or handicapped, the Visitors' Centre, close
to the entrance of the Siq, will issue a special permit (at an
extra fee), for the carriage to go inside Petra to visit the
main attractions. Once inside the site, you can hire a donkey,
or for the more adventurous, a camel - both come with handlers
and take designated routes throughout the site.
Petra was first established sometime around the 6th century BC,
by the Nabataean Arabs, a nomadic tribe who settled in the area
and laid the foundations of a commercial empire that extended
into Syria.
Despite successive attempts by the Seleucid king Antigonus, the
Roman emperor Pompey and Herod the Great to bring Petra under
the control of their respective empires, Petra remained largely
in Nabataean hands until around 100AD, when the Romans took
over. It was still inhabited during the Byzantine period, when
the former Roman empire moved its focus east to Constantinople,
but declined in importance thereafter.
The Crusaders constructed a fort there in the 12th century, but
soon withdrew, leaving Petra to the local people until the early
19th century, when it was rediscovered by the Swiss explorer
Johann Ludwig Burckhardt in 1812.
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