Petra is Jordan's most celebrated attraction and an essential Jordan travel experience. This spectacular ancient city was hewn out of the craggy mountains by the Nabateans and added to by the Romans. In its heyday it was an important trading post for silk and spices.

After its eventual decline, Petra was abandoned and remained hidden from the outside world for 400 years. This has only added to its fame - as an archaeological ‘lost city' on a par with Peru's Machu Picchu and Angkor Wat in Cambodia. It is quite rightly regarded as one of the great wonders of the Middle-Eastern world.

The Treasury is the first dramatic glimpse of the ‘rose-red city half as old as time' as it was described by the poet John William Burgon. It's recognisable to many from its starring role in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, with a 40-metre-high facade that dazzles those who see it. The 2,000-year-old Treasury is especially enchanting at dawn and dusk, when the rock turns from bright orange to pink under the changing light.

Entrance to the city is through the Siq, a narrow, kilometre-long gorge flanked by tall cliffs. Once inside, you could spend days exploring these majestic ruins. The Monastery, the High Place of Sacrifice and a walk up the Colonnaded Street to the Royal Tombs are just a few unmissable Petra highlights.