Today we will do this tour through the cruise line. Petra is a 2 1/2 hour drive from the port of Aqaba and I would hate to miss the ship...it would be a long way to swim to Dubai!!!
Petra, the fabled "rose red city, half as old as time", is a well known ancient Nabataean city in the south of Jordan. Due to the breathtaking grandeur and fabulous ruins, Petra was recognized as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1985.
Petra was the impressive capital of the Nabataean kingdom from around the 6th century BC. The kingdom was absorbed into the Roman Empire in AD 106 and the Romans continued to expand the city. An important center for trade and commerce, Petra continued to flourish until a catastrophic earthquake destroyed buildings and crippled vital water management systems around AD 663. After Saladin's conquest of the Middle East in 1189, Petra was abandoned and the memory of it was lost to the West.
The ruins remained hidden to most of the world until the Swiss explorer, Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, disguised as an Arab scholar, infiltrated the Bedouin-occupied city in 1812. Burckhardt's accounts of his travels inspired other Western explorers and historians to discover the ancient city further.
The first real excavations of the site were in 1929 after the forming of Trans-Jordan. Since that time, Petra has become by far Jordan's largest tourist attraction, partially due to the exposure by the movie, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in 1989. Due to the fantastic engineering accomplishments and the well-preserved dimension of Petra, the archaeological site was chosen in JUly 2007 as one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.
Horse drawn carriages to drive thru the "sig"
Walking the "sig"
Charlie found his cat...
The Treasury
The amphitheater.
This was an amazing day. It was very strenuous. It involved over 4 miles of walking. I had hoped to get a horse drawn carriage to take us out thru the sig but unfortunately, we were not able to get one without a long wait and I was afraid we wouldn't get back to the bus in time so we walked!!!! Charlie did it a lot easier than I did...guess the hours in the gym worked for him......I am VERY grateful we have 6 sea days to recover from the last 3 days!!!!
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