Petra - the magnificent Nabataean ancient city

Petra - the magnificent Nabataean ancient city

When you say Jordan you say Petra - the symbol of Jordan.
The ancient city of Petra - has been declared one of the "New Seven Wonders of World", not just for the beauty of its rose-colored sandstone, or for its setting in the midst of about 100 ruggedly dramatic square kilometers of Wadi Araba, but because this area is a living museum of 10.000 years of human history. 
Petra's history tells the story of many civilizations. A cross roads for trade, Petra's architecture swhos Assyrian, Greek, Roman, and Byzantine influences. 
The word "Petra" is derived from the Greek word for rock.
The city of Petra was founded by Nabataeans (the ancestors of the Jordanians / Yemenites) and was located on the commercial routes of the caravans; his prosperity was due in particular because of the levying taxes and protection fees that were charged to those passing through this city (with 30,000 inhabitants), but also because of the commerce with spices, frankincense, perfumes, salt, silk...or even water. 
Today, as in the Nabateans' time, visitors enter to the city passing through the Siq, the great crack in the rock that leads into the heart of the area. 
Before the mouth of the Siq, visitors pass by the Djinn blocks, huge carved blocks of stone that may represent the Nabatean god Betyl.
The Siq is a natural corridor, was carved not by human hands, but by tectonic forces during a long-forgotten earthquake; the Siq follows a meandering, 1.25 kilometer path, bounded by walls about 100 meters tall. In the Siq, it is still possible to see sections of the paved Nabatean road, water channels, niches that previously held statues of various gods, and weathered carvings, as well as where the grain of the sandstone on one wall matches exactly the grain on the other wall. The Siq ends directly in front of the Treasury (Al-Khazneh), the most well known of Petra's monuments, which has been immortalized in countless photographs and in the film "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade".
Leading into the center of the city are over 40 rock-cut tombs and houses, known as the Street of Facades; from the Outer Siq a steep path that runs up to the Hight Place of Sacrifice (oral-Madbah), one of the oldest standing cultic altars.
Petra is truly the most fantastic and fabulous ancient city...this microcosm of human history can take the visitor on a trip through time, back as far as 10.000 years; here you will find plenty of monuments: royal tombs, temples for gods and goddesses, palaces and castles for kings, many colonnades, beautiful houses and fountains, ancient theaters, Byzantine churches, Roman roads, etc.
Visitors can be dazzled not only by the historical grandeur, but also by the natural beauty of the effects of sun, wind and weather on colorful stone - all together offering grace to one of the New Seven Wonders of the World = Petra !