Welcome to Petra

Imagine walking through a narrow canyon — so narrow that the towering walls almost touch above your head, the sandstone glowing in bands of red, pink, orange, and cream. This passage, called the Siq, stretches 1.2 kilometers into the rock. And then, at the end, through a gap in the cliff face, you catch your first glimpse of the Treasury — a 37-meter-tall facade carved directly into the living rock, its columns and sculptures as crisp as if they were carved yesterday.

This is Petra, the ancient capital of the Nabataean Kingdom, built over 2,000 years ago in the deserts of what is now southern Jordan. The Nabataeans were Arab traders who controlled the incense trade routes linking Arabia, Egypt, and the Mediterranean. They grew fabulously wealthy and used their riches to carve an entire city into the sandstone cliffs — temples, tombs, theaters, and homes for 20,000 to 30,000 residents.

Petra was described by the 19th-century poet John William Burgon as 'a rose-red city half as old as time.' Lost to the Western world for centuries, it was rediscovered in 1812 by Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt. In 2007, it was voted one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. And here is the most astonishing part: only about 15 percent of Petra has been excavated. The vast majority of this ancient city remains buried under the sand, waiting to be found.