The ancient city of Petra is approached down the famous siq gorge, a canyon with dramatically layered sandstone walls at times only around 4 metres wide but as much as 200 metres high. After around a kilometre the first famous glimpse of the city can be seen, that of its most famous monument, the Treasury. The façade is instantly recognisable, being cut from the face of the living rock and dominating the entrance to the city proper.
Although over 20,000 people inhabited Petra almost no residential buildings have been found – what are visible today are tombs, the Treasury being one of them. After the Treasury the siq opens out here into a wide wadi lined with tombs showing the distinctive banding of the multi-coloured local rock and step-decoration of the Nabataeans.
Passing the 2000+ seat theatre and the start of the trail to the High Place of Sacrifice the valley widens further with the Royal Tombs and others visible before you come to the paved Cardo Maximus in what was the city’s centre. Hereabouts lie the battered remains of several of the city’s buildings along with, at the head of the valley, two small museums. From this part of the city trails lead off in a couple of directions, one to the Snake Monument and another to Jebel Haroun, Petra’s highest peak, where a shrine to the prophet Aaron can be found.
Finally a stiff one-hour walk leads up an at times dramatic path to the unmissable Monastery, a breathtaking monument. Hidden away in the upper mountains the Monastery’s scale is daunting, its doorway alone standing 8 metres high and yet the ‘building’ is beautifully proportioned. This magnificent construction, carved like others from the living rock, provides a superb finale to a visit to the city.
Southern Jordan, Jordan
El Beida is the name given to a small Neolithic site close to the entrance to Little Petra. The site is of much interest to archaeologists as it has revealed many finds from 6 different levels, each r...
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Southern Jordan, Jordan
The High Place of Sacrifice is accessed by a staircase on the left hand side of the wadi between the Treasury and the theatre. Some historians put forward that this was the place that human and animal...
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Southern Jordan, Jordan
During the Exodus, Moses and the Israelites passed through the Petra area in what was then the land of Edom. Local tradition says that the spring at Wadi Musa (Valley of Moses), just outside Petra, is...
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Southern Jordan, Jordan
Called el Barid, the ‘cold one’ in Arabic, Little Petra is a gem for those who can’t get enough of lost cities. The narrow entrance siq leads into a small wadi around 400m in length. Whilst not as ext...
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Southern Jordan, Jordan
A lonely reminder of former Crusader glory Shobak Castle lies less than an hour north of Petra. Once called "Mont Real" Shobak dates from the same turbulent period as Kerak, the 12th century. It is pe...
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