Petra was the capital of the Nabataeans, an Arab people who grew wealthy controlling the incense trade between southern Arabia and the Mediterranean. At its height around the first century it held perhaps 20,000 people in a bowl of sandstone mountains, watered by an engineering system of dams, cisterns and channels that is arguably more impressive than the carving.
The Siq
Entry is through a natural fissure 1.2 km long and in places only three metres wide, with walls up to 180 m high. Along it run the remains of the ceramic pipes that carried water into the city. The Siq ends where the Treasury appears through the gap, and no photograph prepares you for it.
The Treasury
Al-Khazneh is 39 m high, cut in the first century as a royal tomb, and named for a legend that a pharaoh hid gold in the urn at its top, which is why the urn is pockmarked with bullet holes. It faces east and is lit best between about nine and eleven in the morning.
The Monastery
Ad-Deir is larger than the Treasury at 47 m wide and stands at the top of roughly 800 rock-cut steps, an hour of climbing from the valley floor. It is less crowded, and the viewpoints beyond it look west across the Wadi Araba. Do it in the late afternoon when the stone turns gold.
The rest of the site
Petra covers about 264 square kilometres and the walk from the gate to the Monastery and back is 12 to 14 km. The Royal Tombs, the Roman colonnaded street, the Great Temple and the Byzantine church with its mosaics are all on the main route. The High Place of Sacrifice is a separate climb with the best overview of the basin. Little Petra, Siq al-Barid, is 8 km north and free of crowds.
Tickets and time
A one-day ticket costs 50 Jordanian dinars, two days 55, three days 60 — the marginal cost of a second day is negligible and one day is genuinely not enough. The Jordan Pass, bought before arrival, includes Petra and waives the visa fee, and pays for itself immediately. Petra by Night runs three evenings a week with the Siq and Treasury lit by 1500 candles; opinions differ on whether it is magical or a queue.
Practicalities
Base yourself in Wadi Musa at the gate. Enter at six when the gate opens to have the Siq to yourself. Carry two litres of water and more in summer. Horse, donkey and camel rides are offered constantly; animal welfare here has been criticised for years and declining is reasonable. The site closes at sunset and rangers do sweep it.