The Ancient City Of Petra

By Nishad Sanzagiri

6 Dec 2009

Last week I visited the ancient city of Petra, one of the new seven wonders of the world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site with my parents. It is a city carved out of hard sandstone by the ancient Nabateans as their capital city around 100 BC. Our guide had told us that we would need atleast three to four days to see Petra completely, but unfortunately we had only 4 hours as we had to go to other places in Jordan (like Wadi Rum, the Dead Sea, etc.). As usual I had carried both my cameras with me (my Sony DSC-H9 and my Nikon Coolpix S10).

I had the chance of taking excellent photographs in Petra. The Pathway (Siq) to the famous treasury (Al-Khazneh), is a great place to take photographs. The Khazneh is also excellent with its famous rock-cut architecture, where the third Indiana Jones movie, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was filmed. Other films filmed there include Arabian Nights, Passion in the Desert, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, the music video "Dominion", and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. It was recreated for the video games Spy Hunter (2001), King's Quest V, Lego Indiana Jones and Sonic Unleashed and appeared in the novels Left Behind, Appointment with Death, The Eagle in the Sand and The Red Sea Sharks, the nineteenth book in The Adventures of Tintin series. It also featured prominently in the Marcus Didius Falco mystery novel Last Act in Palmyra.

Near the monestry local beduin jordanians wait for tourists to come and offer them camel rides, donkey rides and horse ride at nominal fares. At the end of our epic journey in Petra, we hired a donkey ride to the entrance where the Petra Information Centre is located. It was the most adventurous and scary ride I have ever done in my entire life. We had to pass a steep hill to go reach the jeep, which would take us to the Petra Information Centre.

On the whole it was a wonderful journey and I am happy that I could take great photographs in Petra !!

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