NOTHNG Can Prepare You For This . . . .

It's as if you suddenly found yourself on the set of Lost Horizon or Brigadoon or Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark or The Lost City of Z.
It is indeed a lost place -- or it was for centuries until 1912 when a Swiss traveler rediscovered it and introduced its wonders to the civilized world. It's now considered number  two among the Seven Surviving Wonders of the Words (after the pyramids) and has been the setting for numeous movies including Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Arabian Nights, Passion in the Desert, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, The Mummy Returns, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Samsara and Kajraare
It's Petra, a vast treasure of antiquity in Jordan.

Petra lies on the slope of Jabal Al-Madbah in a basin among the mountains which form the eastern flank of the Arabah valley that runs from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba. Petra is believed to have been settled as early as 9,000 BC, and it was possibly established in the 4th century BC as the capital city of the Nabataean Kingdom. The Nabataeans were nomadic Arabs who invested in Petra's proximity to the trade routes by establishing it as a major regional trading hub.

Petra is nothing less than an archeological jewel and there's no way to describe its vastness, its scope or its timelessness. 

But we hope these photos from our recent visit will help.

All photos copyright ©2019 by Dan Cirucci.