Petra
Ancient site
A city carved straight into rose-red cliffs.
Petra was the capital of the Nabataeans, traders who grew rich more than two thousand years ago from caravans carrying spices and incense through the desert.
You walk in through the Siq, a narrow gorge more than a kilometre long. At the end the Treasury suddenly appears: a front almost 40 metres high, carved straight out of the rose-red rock.
- years old
- 2,000+
- the gorge you walk in through
- 1.2 km
- the Treasury is high
- 40 m
- 1
The Treasury was never a treasury. It was probably the tomb of a king.
- 2
The people of Petra caught the rare rainwater in channels and tanks, in the middle of the desert.
- 3
Europe did not know the city existed until a Swiss traveller reached it in 1812.
Question 1 of 2