     Deep within the deserts of Jordan
     lies the ancient city of Petra.
     Through a narrow gorge it emerges
     into view, revealing awe-inspiring
     monuments cut into the surrounding
     cliffs. What is this astonishing
     city? Who built it, and why?

     Two thousand years ago, Petra stood at a
crossroads of the ancient Near East. Camel
caravans passed through, loaded with spices,
textiles and incense from distant regions--and
through such commerce, the city flourished. Its
people, the Nabataeans, harnessed precious water,
enabling the population to soar to perhaps 20,000.

      Re-discovering this astounding complex of cliff-carved
          faades as Swiss explorer, Johann Ludwig
          Burckhardt, did exactly 200 years ago must surely
          have been well worth writing home about. Now well
          known to the world - in no small part due to its
          on-screen role in 'Indiana Jones and the Last
          Crusade' - and in company with the likes of
          Cambodia's Angkor Wat, Peru's Machu Picchu, and
          the Great Wall of China on the list of 'New 7
          Wonders of the World', it is thrilling to imagine
          what this intrepid explorer must have felt on
          first seeing Petra.

