The Rose Red City
Petra, the capital of the Nabataean Arabs, is one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world and hence a major tourist attraction in Jordan. It lies 262 kilometers south of Amman and features carves out of pink rock; its architecture bears a mixture from several civilizations’ ancient arts turning it into a complete city. It commendable on Nabataean civilization as the oldest Arab civilization (Petra) carved into rocks over two thousand years ago and it is an example among new seven wonders in this globe representing richest and imaginative ancient Arab civilizations. In 1812, Swiss orientalist Johann Ludwig Burckhardt discovered Petra.
The Nabataean Kingdom flourished and its borders extended south to the northwest of the Arabian Peninsula, where the city of Madain Saleh is located. The Nabataeans extended their influence to reach the shores of the Red Sea, the eastern Sinai Peninsula, and the Horan Plain in Syria until the city of Damascus, so the Nabataean Kingdom, with its capital Petra, was surrounded by many kingdoms and civilizations, including the Pharaonic civilization to the west, the civilization of Palmyra to the north, and the civilization of Mesopotamia to the east, so the Nabataean Kingdom was at the center of ancient world civilizations and formed the focus of meeting and communication between different global civilizations.
The city of Petra withstood repeated attempts by the Slavs, Byzantines, and Romans to control and subdue it; but it remained unconquerable until 100 AD, when the Romans were able to enter and control it, and it remained an important center of the Roman Empire in that period.