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A city carved straight into the cliffs, hidden at the end of a narrow gorge. Ten questions about one of the most amazing ancient cities in the world.
Desert wanderer 0–4 · Canyon explorer 5–8 · Keeper of the Rose City 9–10
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Petra lies in the rocky desert of southern Jordan. It is the country's best-known sight and a symbol of Jordan.
Photo: Azurfrog, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
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The buildings were cut straight into the rock face. The sandstone glows pink, red and orange, which is why Petra is nicknamed the 'Rose City'.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.
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Its Arabic name, Al-Khazneh, means 'the Treasury': local people once believed treasure was hidden in the stone urn at the top. In fact the urn is solid rock, and the building was probably a grand tomb.
Photo: Susanahajer, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
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In the 1989 film the Treasury is the entrance to the temple that hides the Holy Grail. The first Indiana Jones film, Raiders of the Lost Ark, was filmed in other places, including Tunisia and Hawaii.
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The Nabataeans were traders who grew rich from caravans carrying incense and spices across the desert. Petra was their capital more than 2,000 years ago.
Photo: User:Andrein, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
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The Siq winds for about 1.2 kilometres between towering rock walls, in places only 3 metres apart. Wadi Mujib is another gorge in Jordan, a river canyon that runs down to the Dead Sea.
Photo: David Bjorgen, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
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The Nabataeans were water experts. They caught rain and flash floods with dams and led the water through channels in the rock to tanks called cisterns, turning Petra into an oasis.
Photo: Axel Rouvin from Bordeaux, France, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.
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The winners were Petra, Machu Picchu, the Great Wall of China, the Colosseum, the Taj Mahal, Chichén Itzá and Christ the Redeemer. Stonehenge was one of the finalists but was not chosen.
Photo: Chichen-Itza-Castillo-Seen-From-East.JPG : Uspn Rio de Janeiro - Cristo Redentor, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
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The Swiss traveller Johann Ludwig Burckhardt spoke fluent Arabic and dressed as a local to reach the hidden city. Howard Carter is famous for finding Tutankhamun's tomb in Egypt more than a century later.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.
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The climb up about 800 steps is hot work, but the reward is a building about 50 metres wide and 45 metres high, even bigger than the Treasury, with views over the desert.
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