Best things to do in Petra
Find out more about those top places in Petra
Tucked away in the canyons of southern Jordan’s Shara Mountains, Petra is one of the seven wonders of the world. This is not just hyperbole – in 2007 the ancient monument was voted by popular ballot as one of the New Seven Wonders of the World alongside legendary locations including the Taj Mahal and the Great Wall of China. The sandstone treasuries, temples and royal tombs of Petra are made all the more evocative by the lack of historical information available, which turns the entire setting into a dreamscape of epic proportions. While the city today is inundated with tourists from across the globe, the nearby ruin of Little Petra, thought to be an agricultural settlement that supplied its much larger namesake, is a hidden gem well off the tourist trail.
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Siq
There are lots of interesting things that would definitely catch your fancy, especially at Wadi Mujib. A detailed tour of Wadi Mujib should lead you first to the dam then along a trail that cuts across huge sandstone cliffs to a magnificent waterfall. Meanwhile, the walk down to this waterfall would have you exposed to the beautiful sights of many rare animals that are only found in this region.
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Al-Khazneh
Al-Khazneh was built to be one of the most sophisticated temples in Petra. As a matter of fact, the temple was carved out of sandstone, as sandstone was one thing Jordan had abundant. Al-Khazneh actually means "The Treasury" in English as it was once believed to hold many hidden treasures.
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Ad Deir
Ad Deir means "The Monastery" in English, and it was called this name because it used to be a church when it was first built. Like many other ancient structures in Jordan, Ad Deir was carved out of a mountain of sandstone rocks. Apart from a few other tourist attraction sites like Al-Khazneh, Ad Deir attracts a huge number of tourists.
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Royal Tombs
The Royal Tombs used to be a set of highly decorated tombs of the ancient Byzantine period. On your tour of the tombs, you'd have to go through a number of other equally decorated tombs such as the Urn tombs, the Silk tombs, Palace tombs, Corinthian tombs, and the Sesto Fiorentino tombs. These tombs have one thing in common, they were all carved out of sandstone rocks.
