It lies on the slope of Mount Hor in a basin among the mountains which form the eastern flank of Arabah (Wadi Araba), the large valley running from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba. Petra has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1985.
The site remained unknown to the Western world until 1812, when it was introduced by Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt.
It was described as “a rose-red city half as old as time” in a Newdigate Prize-winning poem by John William Burgon.
What is so unique and stunning about Petra is the city was carved out of the rose-colored sandstone cliffs of a deep gorge called the Siq, or “the shaft”.
