Petra

The once-lost city of Petra is now easy to find, but ease of access hardly lessens its magnificence. Nothing could. After hiking about 2.5m through a natural 3m-wide fissure, one approaches a towering sculpture, raw mountains fashioned by human hands into impossibly delicate structures. This is Khazneh, the so-called “treasury,” Petra’s finest monument to the vigilant gods of the dead. Petra, meaning “stone” in ancient Greek, is perhaps the most astounding ancient city left to the modern world—and certainly the biggest must-see in Jordan. It’s worth changing your travel plans just to explore this insane Nabatean city built to rival the imposing proportions of the surrounding mountains.

For 700 years, Petra was lost to all but the few hundred members of the Bedouin tribe who guarded their treasure from outsiders. In the 19th century, the Swiss explorer Johann Burkhardt heard Bedouin speaking of the “lost city” and vowed to find it. Initially he was unable to find a guide, but he knew that if this were the Petra of legend, the biblical Sela, then it must be close to Mount Hor, the site of Aaron’s tomb. Impersonating a pilgrim, Burkhardt found a guide and, on August 22, 1812, walked between the cliffs of Petra’s si’q (the rift which is the only entrance to Petra). Awed and driven to sketch the monuments and record his thoughts, this pragmatic pilgrim aroused the suspicion of his Bedouin guide.