The decay of the city continued aided by earthquakes and the rise in importance of sea trade routes and petra reached its nadir near the close of the byzantine empire s rule around a d. The city was built on a terrace pierced from east to west by the wadi musa the valley of moses one of the places where according to tradition moses struck a rock and water gushed forth. Petra ancient city center of an arab kingdom in hellenistic and roman times the ruins of which are in southwest jordan.
πέτρα stone originally known to its inhabitants as raqmu is a historical and archaeological city in southern jordan petra lies around jabal al madbah in a basin surrounded by mountains which form the eastern flank of the arabah valley that runs from the dead sea to the gulf of aqaba. In 1812 the site was re discovered by the first european swiss explorer johann ludwig burckhardt who had spent many years studying arabic and the history of islam. The lost city of petra in jordan named as one of the new 7 wonders of the world is a majestic place thousands of years old that still holds hidden secrets waiting to be unveiled.
It is a gigantic carved sculpture in the rocks with abrupt walls modeled by ancient watercourses that opened canyons in the sandstone rock. The whole city is hidden and sheltered by cliffs and mountains in practice it was a place similar to a natural fortress halfway between the gulf of aqaba and the dead sea. Jordan siq the great gorge towards the hidden city of petra asia jordan we all have in the retina the image of the great monument of petra in reality the tomb of an important nabatean king the cuyal is known as the treasure.
The earliest inhabitants nabateans date back to 7000 bc where they began to carve the city continuously in the rock during four centuries. It was discovered in 1812. The hidden city of petra petra lies behind a series of mountains a historic stone carved city that has been hidden for centuries.
Discover 21 hidden attractions cool sights and unusual things to do in jordan from petra to sports city. The dramatic entrance to the lost city of petra is a striking narrow gorge that winds through towering rock. Local legend suggests that treasure was hidden in the urn at the top of the cliff.
Home to some 30 000 people whose survival in this desert landscape was maintained by a complex system of water management it was the centre of a kingdom four times the size of modern jordan at its helm were the nabataeans a once nomadic arab tribe who had used their knowledge of the desert to amass. In petra s heyday around the time of christ the city had been anything but anonymous.
