 Petra is an archaeological site in Jordan, lying in a basin among the mountains which form the eastern flank of Arabah (Wadi Araba), the large valley running from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba. It is famous for having many stone structures carved into the rock. The long-hidden site was revealed to the Western world by the Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt in 1812. It was famously described as "a rose-red city half as old as time" in a Newdigate prize-winning sonnet by John William Burgon. Burgon had not actually visited Petra, which remained accessible only to Europeans accompanied by local guides with armed escorts, until after World War I.
On December 6, 1985 Petra was designated a World Heritage Site. In 2006 a team of architects was set to work on a 'Visitor Centre', and Jordan's tourist revenue is set to increase dramatically, with the mass production of visitors on package holidays, although this is sensitive to any hint of political instability. For example, the Jordan Times reported in December 2006 that 59,000 people visited in the two months October and November 2006, 25% fewer than the same period in the previous year. |
