Ancient city of stone - Petra

Petra, which was forgotten for centuries, still echoes with mysteries of the past. It took 12 weeks to get here from Oman, once the camels were loaded and the campfire stamped out. Then the caravan would set out through the morning mist, as it was guarding its precious cargo from bandits, and pass uneasily through the treachery of Yemen. Later, if things were going well, the caravan would pause to trade at Medina, and it would drink from the brackish wells and gather strength for the journey ahead. To the camel driver of two millennia ago this city, Petra, beckoned like a distant star. What a relief it must have been to see the guards on red sandstone ledges, and to be waved in after they had paid the toll. For the thirsty there was water that was flowing down stone channels along the roadway. Boys on donkeys would dash by as they were shouting news of the arrival. Finally, the caravan would swing wide around a bend to face Al Khazneh, the edifice that was carved from rose-coloured rock, and plunge into the crowded marketplace beyond. Two thousand years have passed, but shades of ancient Petra still endure in the desert of southern Jordan. Filling a power vacuum that was left by Greece’s decline, the Nabateans dominated this part of the Middle East for more than four centuries before they were subjugated by the Romans, and finally they were dispersed onto the back lot of history.