Landmark Asia
Petra
Petra is an old city in Jordan. Its buildings are carved right into pink and red rock. You walk to it through a narrow canyon.
Petra, in southern Jordan, was the capital of the Nabataeans, who grew rich from trade in incense and spices. Many of its tombs and monuments are carved straight into red sandstone cliffs, and a narrow gorge called the Siq leads to its most famous facade, the Treasury.
Half built and half carved into the rock, Petra was the Nabataean capital and, in Hellenistic and Roman times, a caravan center for Arabian incense, Chinese silk and Indian spices. Its rock-cut facades blend Hellenistic design with Nabataean tradition, and an ingenious water system made a dry valley livable.
Photo: Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Discover Petra
Petra is in Jordan, a country in Asia.
The city sits in a valley with tall rock cliffs all around. Long ago, people carved houses for the dead, called tombs, into the cliffs. The rock is pink, red and orange.
Petra lies in a rocky valley in southern Jordan, about 240 kilometers south of the capital, Amman, and 120 kilometers north of the Red Sea town of Aqaba. It was the capital of the Nabataeans, an Arab people who grew rich by trading frankincense, myrrh and spices.
Petra is half built and half carved into the cliffs. Many of its tombs, and its theater, were cut straight out of the red sandstone. It is often called the rose-red city, because of the color of the rock. In 2023, 1,174,137 people visited it.
Petra lies between the Red Sea and the Dead Sea in southern Jordan, some 240 km south of Amman. Inhabited since prehistoric times, it became the rock-cut capital of the Nabataeans and, in Hellenistic and Roman times, a major caravan center for the incense of Arabia, the silks of China and the spices of India, at a crossroads between Arabia, Egypt and Syria-Phoenicia.
UNESCO, which inscribed Petra in 1985, calls it one of the world's richest and largest archaeological sites. UNESCO finds its outstanding value in elaborate tomb and temple architecture, in the remains of an extensive water system, and in the fusion of Hellenistic facades with Nabataean rock-cut tradition. The Petra Development and Tourism Region Authority counted 1,174,137 visitors in 2023, and says about 80 percent of the site is yet to be discovered.
- Where
- southern Jordan, 240 km south of Amman
- Built by
- the Nabataeans
- World Heritage Site
- 1985
- Visitors (2023)
- 1,174,137
A city of traders
People have lived near Petra for a very, very long time.
Later, traders called the Nabataeans made it their city. Camels carried spices and sweet-smelling incense through it. Petra grew busy and rich.
People have lived around Petra since very early times, and early farming villages have been found nearby. In the 4th century BCE, the Nabataeans made Petra a center for trade. Camel caravans carried incense, spices and silk through it, and the city grew to between 10,000 and 30,000 people.
In 106 CE, the Romans took over the Nabataean kingdom, and Petra kept thriving for about two more centuries. A large earthquake in 363 CE destroyed much of the city. With trade routes changing too, people slowly left. In 1812, the Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt reached Petra, and the city became famous around the world.
Neolithic villages such as Bayda (8500 to 5500 BCE) are among the earliest settled communities known, and Edomites occupied the area by about 1200 BCE. The Nabataeans, an Arab people, established Petra as a trade hub in the 4th century BCE; it prospered as their capital from the 1st century BCE, with a population Britannica puts at 10,000 to 30,000.
In 106 CE Trajan annexed the kingdom as the province of Arabia, yet Petra kept its standing, called "Metropolis of Arabia" in 114 CE; Romans added a colonnaded street and other monuments. An earthquake in 363 CE destroyed much of the city, and Britannica notes that after another in 551 significant habitation seems to have ceased. Byzantine churches, the Crusader-period castles of Al-Habis and Al-Wu'ayra and Islamic-period villages also survive. Burckhardt's visit in 1812 made Petra known in the West; excavations since 1958 have greatly widened what is known.
Carved from the rock
Many buildings in Petra were not made by stacking stones.
Instead, they carved them out of the cliffs! They cut doors, columns and rooms right into the rock. They also built channels to collect rainwater.
Many of Petra's monuments were not built up from blocks. Nabataean stone carvers cut them straight into the sandstone cliffs. The theater was hewn from the rock in one piece, with room for up to 6,000 people. To make space for it, older tombs were carved away.
Water was precious in this dry place. The Nabataeans built dams, cisterns (underground tanks), channels cut in the rock and clay pipes. At the entrance to the Siq, they built a dam and cut an 88-meter tunnel through the rock to send flash floods away from the gorge.
UNESCO describes Petra as half built, half carved into the rock. The facades of the so-called royal tombs fuse Hellenistic architecture with Nabataean rock-cut tradition; the Treasury shows six Corinthian capitals, and the Corinthian Tomb is named for capitals like them. The theater, which may date to the early 1st century CE under King Aretas IV, was hewn in one piece; earlier tomb complexes were carved away for its rear wall, and the Romans later added a stage wall. It held up to 6,000 people.
Settlement in this arid basin depended on water engineering of the first centuries BCE and CE: diversion dams, the Muthlim tunnel, channels, aqueducts, reservoirs, cisterns and ceramic pipes that controlled and conserved seasonal rain. A dam at Bab as-Siq and an 88 m tunnel diverted the flash floods of Wadi Musa away from the Siq, and two water channels run along its walls.
The Siq, the Treasury and more
To reach Petra, you walk through a narrow canyon called the Siq.
At the end, a giant carved front appears. It is called the Treasury. But it was really a tomb! Farther on are a theater and more tombs.
The Siq is a narrow, winding gorge just over 1 kilometer long, formed when the mountain split apart. Its old paved road was later repaved by the Romans, and carvings of camels carrying goods were found on its walls in 1997.
At its end stands Al Khazna, the Treasury, 39.5 meters tall. Despite its name, archaeologists think it was a tomb, probably from the time of King Aretas IV, who ruled from 9 BCE to 40 CE. Beyond it are the rock-cut theater, four great Royal Tombs on Khubtha mountain, a colonnaded street and the huge facade called Ad-Dayr, the Monastery, carved into the cliffs of Jabal ad-Dayr.
Visitors enter from the east through the Siq, a natural cleft just over 1 km long. Its Nabataean road was repaved by the Romans after 106 CE; a triumphal arch over its entrance collapsed in 1895, and excavations in 1997 revealed a large relief of camels carrying merchandise.
Al Khazna (39.5 m) faces the Siq's end. Many archaeologists date it to Aretas IV (9 BCE to 40 CE) and see it as a mausoleum, not a treasury; in 2003 Jordan's Department of Antiquities found three Nabataean royal tombs of the late 1st century BCE beneath it. Beyond lie the theater, the four Royal Tombs on Jabal Khubtha (among them the Urn, Palace and Corinthian tombs), the Roman Colonnaded Street of the 2nd century CE, the Great Temple complex of 7,560 m², which the authority calls by far Petra's largest building, and Ad-Dayr, an unfinished tomb facade that served as a church in Byzantine times.
- The Siq
- a natural gorge just over 1 km long
- Height of the Treasury
- 39.5 m
- Theater seats
- up to 6,000
- Flood tunnel
- 88 m long
Petra today
Today, visitors from all over the world walk through the Siq.
They look up at the tall carved rocks. Only a small part of old Petra has been explored so far.
The authority that runs Petra calls it Jordan's greatest tourist attraction. In 2023, 1,174,137 people came, and in 2007 it was named one of the Seven New Wonders of the World. The main way in is through the Siq.
Archaeologists from Jordan and many other countries have dug at Petra, and the authority that runs it says about 80 percent of the site is yet to be discovered. Wind and rain wear away the sandstone, and the old Nabataean flood defenses must be kept in repair to protect the Siq.
Petra lies within the Petra Archaeological Park, managed by Jordan's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities; protection is the job of the Department of Antiquities, and infrastructure planning rests largely with the Petra regional authority, which counted 1,174,137 visitors in 2023. Excavations have been led by the Department of Antiquities, Basel University, the Council for British Research in the Levant, Brigham Young University and others.
UNESCO lists the pressures: erosion of the sandstone by wind and rain, flash floods along Wadi Musa through the Siq if the Nabataean diversion system is not maintained, tourism congestion at the Siq, and new infrastructure. UNESCO also records that the Bdul, a Bedouin tribe, were resettled with their livestock from the Petra basin to a new village at Umm Sayhun, partly to slow the erosion.
Amazing facts
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Petra is called the rose-red city because of its pink and red rock.
Petra is known as the rose-red city, named for the color of the rock its buildings were carved from.
The name 'rose-red city' comes from the color of the sandstone from which many of Petra's structures were carved.
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The whole front of the Treasury was carved out of the cliff.
The Treasury is 39.5 meters tall, and all of it was carved from the cliff.
Al Khazna rises 39.5 m; in 2003 three Nabataean royal tombs of the late 1st century BCE were found beneath it.
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Carvings of camels were found on the canyon walls.
In 1997, diggers found a large carving of camels carrying goods on the walls of the Siq.
Excavations in the Siq in 1997 revealed a large relief of camels carrying merchandise on its southern and western walls.
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Archaeologists have explored only a small part of Petra so far.
The authority that runs Petra says about 80 percent of the site is yet to be discovered.
The Petra Development and Tourism Region Authority estimates that 80 percent of the site is yet to be discovered.
Words to know
- gorge
- a deep, narrow valley with steep rock walls
- facade
- the front of a building
- tomb
- a room or building where a person is buried
- sandstone
- a soft rock made of sand grains pressed together
- cistern
- a tank, often underground, for storing water
- caravan
- a group of traders traveling together, often with camels
- incense
- a material that gives off a sweet smell when it is burned
Discovery challenge
-
Which country is Petra in?
In which country is Petra?
Which country's Department of Antiquities protects Petra?
- Jordan
- Egypt
- Mexico
Show the answer
Jordan
Jordan! Petra is in Jordan, in Asia.
Petra is in southern Jordan, about 240 kilometers south of the capital, Amman.
Jordan: the site lies within the Petra Archaeological Park, under Jordan's Department of Antiquities.
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What was the Treasury really?
The Treasury has a famous name. What do archaeologists think it really was?
What do most archaeologists think Al Khazna was built as?
- A tomb
- A bank
- A palace
Show the answer
A tomb
A tomb! It was a place where people were buried.
Despite its name, it was most likely a tomb, carved around the time of King Aretas IV.
A mausoleum, probably of Aretas IV's reign; three royal tombs were found beneath it in 2003.
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What is the Siq?
What is the Siq that leads into Petra?
What is the Siq, the main entrance to Petra from the east?
- A narrow canyon
- A wide river
- A tall tower
Show the answer
A narrow canyon
A narrow canyon! Its rock walls are very tall.
The Siq is a narrow natural gorge just over 1 kilometer long that leads to the Treasury.
A natural cleft just over 1 km long, formed by a splitting of the mountain, with water channels along both sides.
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What did the Nabataeans dig to keep floods out of the Siq?
What did the Nabataeans cut through the rock to keep flash floods out of the Siq?
What did the Nabataeans cut at Bab as-Siq to divert the floods of Wadi Musa?
- A tunnel
- A bridge
- A tower
Show the answer
A tunnel
A tunnel! It sent the floodwater another way.
With a dam, an 88-meter tunnel sent flash floods away from the Siq.
An 88 m rock-cut tunnel, with a dam, diverted Wadi Musa's floods to Wadi Al Mudhlim and Wadi al Mataha.
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Why is Petra called the rose-red city?
Why is Petra called the rose-red city?
What gives Petra its nickname, the rose-red city?
- The color of its rock
- Its rose gardens
- Red paint on its walls
Show the answer
The color of its rock
Its rock is pink and red!
The sandstone its buildings were carved from is pink and red.
The color of the sandstone from which many of its structures were carved.
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Experiments to try
- Watch What If? Lab What if a river flooded every year? For thousands of years, the Nile in Egypt flooded every year, spreading fresh mud across its banks. That mud made the land rich for farming, in the middle of a desert. Imagine a river that flooded every year: you could plan for it, farm on it, and build banks called levees to control it. Many of the earliest towns grew up beside rivers like this.
- Watch What If? Lab What if Earth had no deserts? About one third of Earth's land is desert. Deserts form where sinking air dries out the sky or mountains block the rain, and they are home to animals found nowhere else. Their dust even blows across an ocean to feed the Amazon rainforest. Imagine Earth with no deserts and see what would change.
Explore next
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Country
Jordan
Jordan is a kingdom in Southwest Asia, mostly covered by rocky desert. It is home to Petra, a city carved into red sandstone cliffs long ago, the wild valleys of Wadi Rum, and the shore of the Dead Sea, the lowest place on land. About 11.5 million people lived there in 2025.
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-
Watch
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Dead Sea
The Dead Sea is a salt lake in the Middle East, with Jordan on its eastern shore and the Palestinian West Bank along part of its western shore. Its surface lies far below sea level, about 435 meters down in 2019, and its water is nearly ten times saltier than the ocean, so swimmers bob on top without trying.
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For parents & teachers
What children will learn
- Locate Petra in southern Jordan and explain why its location made it a trading city.
- Describe how the Nabataeans carved buildings into rock instead of building them up.
- Explain how dams, channels and cisterns let people live in a dry valley.
- Discuss how archaeologists keep learning about a site that is mostly still buried.
Recommended ages: 3 to 17 · About 15 minutes
Talk about it
- Why do you think traders with camels stopped at Petra?
- What is different about carving a building out of rock compared with building it from bricks?
- Petra is dry most of the year but has sudden floods. How would you plan a city for both?
Try at home or in class
- Carve a doorway and columns into a bar of soap with a plastic spoon, working from the top down.
- Pour water down a tray of sand, then cut a channel and a little dam with a spoon, and watch how the water changes course.
Key vocabulary: gorge, facade, tomb, sandstone, cistern, caravan, incense
Where these facts come from
- Wikidata , Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)
- Petra , UNESCO World Heritage Centre
- History of Petra , Petra Development and Tourism Region Authority (Visit Petra, official site)
- Al Khazna (The Treasury) , Petra Development and Tourism Region Authority (Visit Petra, official site)
- The Siq , Petra Development and Tourism Region Authority (Visit Petra, official site)
- The Theater , Petra Development and Tourism Region Authority (Visit Petra, official site)
- Locations in Petra , Petra Development and Tourism Region Authority (Visit Petra, official site)
- Excavations , Petra Development and Tourism Region Authority (Visit Petra, official site)
- Petra , Encyclopaedia Britannica
- UNESCO World Heritage List , UNESCO World Heritage Centre (Linked as a reference; site facts come from Wikidata)
- Wikimedia Commons , Wikimedia Foundation (Per file (public domain, CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA); see each media record)
Checked, not yet human-reviewed. Last updated October 24, 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.