Petra : A Rose-Red City

Petra is an archeological site familiar for its stone-cut structure.A precious treasure of Jordan in Arab States.

Petra was constructed around  100 BCE by Nabatians , the Arabs as their capital city.This site was known to the west side of the world in 1812 when Johann Ludwig Burckhardt , a Swiss explorer visited this site. Rekem is an ancient and native name for Petra. Petra was described popularly as “a rose-red city half as old as time” by John William Burgon.

Petra was considered not only as a fortified defensive structure for Nabatians but also as a commercial route to different places and served as a centre for caravan business. Excavations proved that those people created artificial oasis, dams, cisterns to collect rain water and are used in drought conditions for living.

The tourists enter this site from East which leads to 3-4 meters narrow , dark gorge named Siq formed by strong split in sandstone rocks. Through this water flows into Wadi Musa,a town south side of Jordan. The treasury ,Al Khazneh built in the style of Greek architectures  is a tourist attraction of this city and it is carved from sandstone cliff with height of about 40 metres. At a little distance from the treasury en-Nejr, a massive theatre with several royal tombs is present. Urn Tomb here is famous.A large semi circular shape amphitheater for 8000 people with three sides colored in rose can be viewed at the hill side.

El-Dier ,the monastery is fifty feet wide and fort feet tall is important facade in Petra.The only place when can go back from El-Deir is through which they came.The temples, tombs, the open site  , theatres all here are carved from sand stone and are in rust or rose red in colour.

Petra one of the tourist visiting places located in Jordan is now in the list of seven wonders of the modern world.