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Harrison Ford in his Oscar-winning movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade could probably be a decent enough reminder for people on where (or what) Petra is, but even awesome explosives, saving the world from the Nazis, and River Phoenix are not enough to bring justice to what this ancient city is about.

Referred to as the “Rose-red city” and “the Lost City,” Petra (from the Latin word 'petrae', meaning 'rock'), is a part of the present-day Jordan in the Middle East. The city was discovered late, but it has been around since ancient times and has been linked to the stations 19 to 26 of the Exodus, although no sufficient details were given. Back then the place was referred to as Edom (meaning “red”), and the Petra area around the time of 1200 BCE was suggested to have been populated by Edomites.

People in Jordan could brag about a couple of things: Petra is a city carved from rocks; the Nabataeans (one of its first inhabitants) were geniuses in engineering, trade, and the arts; and a large part of it still stands today.

Established on the 6^th century BC, was first populated by the nomadic tribe Nabataeans. Studies say that the Nabataeans were good in business and engineering, and trade of spices, incense, frankincense and myrrh flourished during their time. At one point, foreign traders started entering the city because luxury items were in demand in Egypt, Greece, and Rome. They were also known for their exceptional talent in sculpting rocks into tombs and monuments. The place prospered all the more because of this, making them one of the most merchantable cities at the time.

They also created systems that helped conserve water. Because of flash floods entering the city, the Nabataeans used dams and cisterns to conserve water. The artificial oasis that was created helped stop flash floods and hoarded water for drought.

Roman Takeover

It seems no work of Man's creative hand,

by labour wrought as wavering fancy planned;

But from the rock as if by magic grown,

eternal, silent, beautiful, alone!

-Petra by John William Burgon

The Romans observed how the city thrived and saw its great potential for trade and territory. Roman Emperor Trajan eventually took over and called the city Arabia Petraea sometime around AD 106, and the Nabataeans eventually fell under imperial hands. Studies say that at some point, this conquest bore better and safer lives for the Nabataeans.

Christianity entered the city at around 313 AD, and at 330 AD, the Emperor Constantine moved to direct its focus to the eastern Roman Empire capital at Constantinople. Most of the city was said to have been destroyed after an earthquake hit in 363 AD. Temples, streets, and even the water supply system were destroyed, and some roads were torn down, destroying the routes used for trade. This devastation virtually brought the city to ruins, but many buildings were consequently restored.

In 551 CE, however, another earthquake hit the city, resulting to more ruins. With this economic decline and the rise of Islam, the city became a backwater community. It was referred to as the “Lost City” and became unknown to the outside world for a very long time.

A fortress behind the Roman temple was made by the Crusaders in the 12^th century, but they withdrew. Many explorers attempted to explore and re-discover the place, but due to inaccessibility, none of them immediately succeeded. The city was re-discovered in 1812 by Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, a Swiss explorer who studied the ruins of the many buildings and water systems.

Before Burckhardt’s visit, the city could not be found in maps. For a reported 500 years, many outsiders did not know it even existed at all.

The city today

Petra today could be visited all year round. According to the American Museum of National History, this ancient city continues to undergo restoration of the dams the Nabataeans created centuries ago. In order to see these ancient treasures, one has to go through the Siq, a narrow gorge that lets people see the rock formations that that was created more than 2,000 years ago. The Siq narrows down in width and the high walls extend up to a hundred meters.

The end of the Siq will lead the tourists to the Al-Khazneh or the Treasury. Visitjordan.com described it as “a massive façade, 30m wide and 43m high, carved out of the sheer, dusky pink, rock-face and dwarfing everything around it.” Tombs, temples, and the Roman-style theatre are some of the breathtaking wonders that tourists are expected to visit.

Tourists are advised to go first to the Petra Visitor Center, where tickets and tour instructions are provided daily. The Wadi Musa (Arabic for “Valley of Moses”), the nearest town to Petra, is a tourist-friendly community that has hotels, restaurants, bars, and marketplaces selling Jordanian products.

The Petra Archaeological Park, a tourism site, has been considered a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1985 (desert castle Quesir Amra and archeological site Um er-Rasas are two Jordan sites also included) and was voted in 2007 as one of the New 7 Wonders of the World.

800 sites to explore

Pre-fabricated houses are not uncommon in different places in the world. Buildings are built by machines, and one’s chances of seeing any animal properly used as a form of transportation is very slim. These are some of the reasons why Petra and other remaining ancient cities in the world deserve a visit.

The surviving antiquities are manifestations of how a civilization of this man-made wonder prospered by way of skill and hard work. The Nabataeans and all the groups that have inhabited the city shaped and carved structures with their hands, skills, and refined brilliance. Some attractions made from the rocky cliffs such as tombs, temples, theatres, and mosaics are lucky enough to survive and be available for visit.

Its tale and history are also worthy of studying. With 800 registered sites, it will be impossible for one to be bored going around the place. For a place has been deserted, discovered, conquered, forgotten and discovered again, this rock city definitely knows a thing or two about building something great.