Petra rediscovered

Petra's mysterious beauty and dramatic story have long captivated the imaginations of historians and art lovers. From the third century BC until the first century AD the city, with its magnificent rock-cut tombs and temples, flourished astride one of the major trade routes of the Middle East that ran through the Great Rift Valleys and the Nagev to the Red Sea. Petra's people, the Nabataeans, traded in the spices that were carried from Arabia, Persia and India, but a change in the trade routes in the fifth century saw the city slide into decline and in 551 a devastating earthquake all but destroyed it. Not until 1812 was Petra rediscovered by the Western world, and only a tiny fraction of its riches have been unearthed and studied.