Pictures National Geographic

Jack Cross -Editing

The ancient city of Petra is one of Jordan's national treasures. Petra is the legacy of the Nabateans, an industrious Arab

people who settled in southern Jordan more than 2000 years ago. Admired then for its refined culture, massive architecture

and ingenious complex of dams and water channels, Petra is now a UNESCO world heritage site. Petra's most famous

monument, the Treasury, appears dramatically at the end of the siq. Used in the final sequence of the film "Indiana Jones

and the Last Crusade", the towering facade of the Treasury is only one of myriad archaeological wonders to be explored at Petra. Various walks and climbs reveal literally hundreds of

buildings, tombs, baths, funerary halls, temples, arched gateways, colonnaded streets and haunting rock drawings - as well as a 3000 seat open air amphitheatre circa and a gigantic

first century Monastery.

Music: My Beautiful Home Land

Petral New Seven Wonders of the World.

Petra, Jordan was lost to the Western World from about the 14th century until the early 19th century

Petra's glory days were in the century before Christ's

birth. When Rome annexed it in the second century, Petra had about

30,000 residents.

Petra, where breath-taking architecture is carved into rose-

colored sandstone cliffs

Following Petra's decline a few centuries after Christ's birth, most of its buildings were buried by sand which sheltered the carvings over

the centuries. Petra was rediscovered in 1812.

Petra was one of the most easy to defend cities of the ancient

world.

Petra's temples, tombs, theaters and other buildings are scattered

over 400 square miles.

The Nabataeans carved channels into the sides of the

cliffs. Modern engineers say the Nabataens were : "absolute

geniuses" at controlling rainwater to prevent flooding

and to avoid shortages in times of drought.

The Nabataeans carved channels into the sides of the cliffs. Modern engineers say the Nabataens were "absolute geniuses" at controlling rainwater to prevent flooding and to avoid shortages in times of drought.

"The Treasury," the first facade you see as you enter

Petra, is world famous because of the Indiana Jones "The Last Crusade" movie. Carved into the cliff, "The

Treasury" is so-named because at the top of the enormous structure is a

carved, stone object that looks like an urn. According to legend, the urn contains

treasure. Chips on the inaccessible urn are the results of unsuccessful

attempts to break it with bullets and stones.

3,000 Seat Theatre

The Treasures of PetralMarble Vase with

Panther shaped handles

Last Slide

Jack Cross