"A Rose Red Wonder of the World" a Petra Travel Page by antistar

When I visited this magnificent piece of history, there was much propaganda from the local tourist board, begging what few visitors braved the overblown threat of terrorism to visit the New Seven Wonders of the World website and vote Petra to become a member. Despite the distinct lack of visitors, it succeeded, and made the last shortlist of 21, before the final decision is made in July. At the very least, it's now rated as one of the 21 most amazing sites in the world. I reckon it's at least in the top ten.

Petra hits the right note in so many ways, to make it a strong contender.

On its own it would be an area of amazing natural beauty, and would create wonder in any visitor as to how a land like this could have been created. Walking through the Siq, a great rift in the sandstone mountains, as the sheer red rock climbs steeply above your head, and your footsteps echo down the empty narrow passageway, is a eerie and awesome sensation. And that's just the start of the show. As the Siq opens up onto one of Petra's most famous landmarks, the Treasury, it's difficult not to be completely bowled over.

And there's much much more!

The Nabataeans carved a city out of the sandstone rock, and created unique buildings of stunning beauty. Apart from making you gasp at their skill, artistry and ingenuity, you are left wondering, why on earth did they carve this city out of stone? The answer to that seems to be the Nabataeans' skill in water control. The area is known for its occasional flooding, and the Nabataeans mastered the water through dams, cisterns and water conduits, creating an artificial oasis in a sea of sand.

The city became a massive center of trade in the region, controlling the trade routes between the Egyptian civilizations, and the Graeco-Roman civilizations developing to the north. This allowed for a fantastic amount of wealth, which funded the expansion of the city to fantastic proportions. It also meant a great deal of influence came from these two great civilizations, and before long the Romans absorbed the city into their empire, leaving behind their own traces in the red dust, like the theater.

There are few, if any, places in the world, where I believe you will be left wondering how and why quite as much as you will in Petra. How did this place get to be here, why did they build the city here, how did they carve such wonderous buildings out of the rock, why was it left undiscovered for so long? And it was hidden from the eyes of the world for centuries. It wasn't until 1812, about two thousand years after the city was founded, that the city became known to the Western world, when Johann Ludwig Burckhardt first found them.

Since then they have gone on to capture the imagination of generations. The poet Burgon famously described the city as the "rose red city half as old as time." Lawrence of Arabia was so fascinated by the place he was known to have spent much time wandering its nooks and crannies. When Spielberg wanted an awesome location to cause a spectacle at the end of his movie, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, he chose the Treasury at Petra to be the hiding place of the Holy Grail.

Ever since I saw the incredible carved buildings in that movie I wanted to see this place. And now I have. And it was worth all the effort.