Petra- One of the wonders of the world

Petra is, without exaggeration, Jordan's calling card.

The word "Petra" means rock and the city was created by the ancient Nabatian tribes right in the pink rocks that changes their tint depending on the time of day.

Because of the rocky location of the city, the inhabitants of ancient petra just had to become inventors and engineers, in order to construct residential and other buildings.

The "Lost City" still has secrets to reveal: Thousands of years ago, the now-abandoned city of Petra was thriving.

CARVED DIRECTLY INTO vibrant red, white, pink, and sandstone cliff faces, the prehistoric Jordanian city of Petra was "lost" to the Western world for hundreds of years.

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

The city of Petra, capital of the Nabataean Arabs, is one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world.

We have uncovered just 15 percent of the city," some archaeologist says. "The vast majority—85 percent—is still underground and untouched."

It is not known precisely when Petra was built, but the city began to prosper as the capital of the Nabataean Empire from the 1st century BC, which grew rich through trade.The remains of their innovative networks of water capture, storage, transport, and irrigation systems are found to this day throughout this area.

Petra was later annexed to the Roman Empire and continued to thrive until a large earthquake in 363 AD destroyed much of the city in the 4th century AD.

The earthquake combined with changes in trade routes, eventually led to the downfall of the city which was ultimately abandoned.

By the middle of the 7th century Petra appears to have been largely deserted and it was then lost to all except local Bedouin from the area.

In 1812 a Swiss explorer named Johannes Burckhardt set out to ‘rediscover’ Petra; he dressed up as an Arab and convinced his Bedouin guide to take him to the lost city, After this, Petra became increasingly known in the West as a fascinating and beautiful ancient city, and it began attracting visitors and continues to do so today.

The Nabataeans buried their dead in intricate tombs that were cut out of the mountainsides and the city also had temples, a theater, and following the Roman annexation and later the Byzantine influence, a colonnaded street and churches.

In addition to the magnificent remains of the Nabataean city, human settlement and land use for over 10,000 years can be traced in Petra, where great natural, cultural, archaeological and geological features merge.

On December 6, 1985, Petra was designated a World Heritage Site,, also Petra was chosen by the Smithsonian Magazine as one of the 28 places you should visit them before you die.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade were filmed in Petra.