Situated between Red Sea and the dead sea and inhabited since prehistoric times, Petra the Rock-cut capital city of Nabataeans, became during Hellenistic and Roman times a major caravan centre for the incense of Arabia, the silks of China and the spices of India, a crossroads between Arabia, Egypt and Syria Phoenicia.

Petra is a half-built, half-carved into the rock, and is surrounded by mountains riddled with passages and gorges. An ingenious water management system allowed the extensive settlement of an essentially arid area during the Nabataean, Roman and Byzantine periods. It’s one of the world’s richest and larger archaeological sites set in a dominating red sandstone landscape.