Petra – 1977

Petra is a historical city in Jordan. This is a fascinating place to me and on my “bucket list,” and like many others, I’d probably like to ride in on horseback.

While this location was used in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, I find the real city much more fascinating then the movie version. Archaeologist Zeidoun Al-Muheisen of Yarmouk University in Jordan tells National Geographic that only about fifteen percent of the city has been uncovered.

The city was the center of a trade empire ruled Nabataeans. They were absorbed into the Roman Empire in 106 A.D. That led quickly to Petra’s downfall as land trade routes were abandoned in favor of sea based ones. A major earthquake in 363 damaged the city’s water supply and it was totally abandoned in 663 after Arabic Conquest. The city was known to tourist for centuries even in the Middle Ages. Egyptians visited in the 13th century, and Johann Ludwig Burckhardt of Switzerland described the city in 1812.