The capital of the Nabataeans, named Ramqu at the time and renamed as Petra in our days, sat hidden in its closed canyon for two millennia.

It was a thriving city in a commercial kingdom that controlled the roads of the area until the Romans came and took over the entire region. Its sleep was surprisingly disturbed not by grave diggers or by a modern campaign for tourism promotion, but by the remarkable success of the Hollywood production of “Indiana Jones” shot here.

The canyon that spread several kilometers has its walls carved in its entirety in large funerary tombs for the powerful rulers of the day. Besides, broad temples, amphitheaters, and colonnades dug into the dry canyon walls ride to the top of the mountain. A several hours drive from the magnificent Petra is Wadi Rum, an otherworldly looking desert adopted as the landscape of the Tatooine Planet in “Star Wars.”