WANDERLUST WEDNESDAY~~~Petra, Jordan

Every autumn I start to think about traveling.  I don't know why.  It could be the impending frigid wall of white coming our way.  My life is such (family) that I am not able to travel to exotic places yet...I will though, mark my words!!!

This year I thought I would try to ease the wanderlust by blogging about the places I would like to go.  So, welcome to wanderlust Wednesday!  Every week (holidays questionable) I will feature a spot I would like to see while I still can!   It's along list.  Years worth of Wednesdays....enjoy!!

PETRA, JORDAN

"A person standing in the doorway of the Monastery at Petra, Jordan, shows the enormity of the ancient building's entrance. Carved into the sandstone hill by the Nabataeans in the second century A.D., this towering structure, called El-Deir, may have been used as a church or monastery by later societies, but likely began as a temple."

Photograph by Martin Gray    http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/archaeology/lost-city-petra/

Petra is a UNESCO World Heritage site.  The following is a passage from their site (http://whc.unesco.org) :

     "Situated between the Red Sea and the Dead Sea and inhabited since prehistoric times, the rock-cut capital city of the Nabateans, became during Hellenistic and Roman times a major caravan centre for the incense of Arabia, the silks of China and the spices of India, a crossroads between Arabia, Egypt and Syria-Phoenicia. Petra is half-built, half-carved into the rock, and is surrounded by mountains riddled with passages and gorges. An ingenious water management system allowed extensive settlement of an essentially arid area during the Nabataean, Roman and Byzantine periods. It is one of the world's richest and largest archaeological sites set in a dominating red sandstone landscape. 

The Outstanding Universal Value of Petra resides in the vast extent of elaborate tomb and temple architecture; religious high places; the remnant channels, tunnels and diversion dams that combined with a vast network of cisterns and reservoirs which controlled and conserved seasonal rains, and the extensive archaeological remains including of copper mining, temples, churches and other public buildings. The fusion of Hellenistic architectural facades with traditional Nabataean rock-cut temple/tombs including the Khasneh, the Urn Tomb, the Palace Tomb, the Corinthian Tomb and the Deir ("monastery") represents a unique artistic achievement and an outstanding architectural ensemble of the first centuries BC to AD. The varied archaeological remains and architectural monuments from prehistoric times to the medieval periods bear exceptional testimony to the now lost civilizations which succeeded each other at the site."

Scholars know the Nabataeans were in Petra since at least 312 B.C., says archaeologist Zeidoun Al-Muheisen of Jordan's Yarmouk University.  Al-Muheisen, also, stated that only 15% is uncovered.  A massive 85% is untouched.

Local Arabs believe that the place where Moses struck a rock with his staff, causing water to burst forth is very close by.

samples of the many and varied rock formations

Here is a list of movies filmed there: 

                       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 and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

 Maybe it's the jewelry that draws me there ;)

These pictures and notes are just a wee taste, a tease.  Here is the official website:

http://www.visitpetra.jo

Thanks for stopping by!!  If you have been to Petra...please tell us all about it in the comments.