Petra, Jordan
The Nabataean ruins, carved in the steep rocks at Petra, lie in a valley between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba.
Once the capital of a sect of cave-dwelling Semites, who spoke Aramaic, located on an early caravan route to Gaza, the Persian Gulf and Damascus, Petra was a flourishing city.
Some facts you probably did not know:
Petra was also called Rekem and is mentioned in the Dead Sea scrolls (the 850-odd Hebrew documents that pre-date the Bible and give knowledge of that era).
The people who lived here had special knowledge of water engineering and used special drainage systems, cisterns for water storage and dams to protect their capital from the habitual suddden floods that occurred.
Photograph: Marwan Naamani/AFP/Getty Images
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