Petra is located about 150 miles south of both Jerusalem and Amman, the capital of Jordan, and about midway between Damascus, Syria, and the Red Sea, making it ideally suited as a hub of commerce in the area.
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.
The city of Petra was established as a trading post by the Nabateans, an Arab Bedouin tribe indigenous to the region in what is now southwestern Jordan.
The Nabateans living and trading in Petra soon accumulated a significant amount of wealth, and an envious Greek Empire attacked the city in 312 B.C. This event marks the first reference to Petra in recorded history.
By the beginning of the eighth century A.D., Petra was largely abandoned and no longer a significant location commercially, politically and/or culturally.
It is without a doubt Jordan’s most valuable treasure and greatest tourist attraction.
A vast, unique city, carved into the side of the Wadi Musa Canyon centuries ago by the Nabataeans, who turned it into an important junction for the silk and spice routes that linked China, India and southern Arabia with Egypt, Greece and Rome.
The most elaborate building in Petra is Al Khazneh, carved out of a sandstone rock face, it’s massive façade dwarfing everything around it.
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