After our sound sleep in the lovely 5-star Movenpick Hotel, we visited Petra. This ancient city carved out of rock is a true man-made wonder. Petra holds no religious significance for Christians. Nonetheless, it is a tourist's delight. Put another way... the place is just cool!
Petra was once the capital of the Nabateans, a people who occupied the territory approximately two thousand years ago. Although two-thirds of it is still underground, what's revealed is simply awesome. The centerpiece is a structure known as "The Treasury." It was made famous as the home of the holy grail in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
National Geographic refers to Petra as "a natural fortress on a pass through ragged mountains acquired as a crossroads for trade. Filling a power vacuum left by Greece's decline, the Nabateans dominated this part of the Middle East for more than four centuries before being subjugated by the Romans, then eclipsed by the Byzantines, and finally, dispersed onto the back lot of History."
