Hollywood star Richard Gere has been indulging his passion for history during a visit to the city of Petra. The silver-haired performer, who travelled to Jordan to take part in a peace summit, took time out to visit the breathtaking sights the spectacular settlement has to offer.
Sitting on the edge of the Wadi Rum desert, the city is quite literally carved into the region's sandstone mountains. The lost civilisation of the Nabateans carved their homes and places of business - not to mention monasteries and even a stadium - into the hard rock.
The arid desert was first settled by the Nabatean Arabs around 600BC and in the years that followed it grew into one of the Middle East's most important commercial centres. Petra's location, in a middle of a range of high mountains, offered it protection from invaders, and both Herod the Great and the Roman Emperor Pompey failed to bring it under their control.
Visitors to the city, which is found five hours south of Ammam, have to travel along the Wadi Musa – or "Valley Of Moses" – until they reach a pathway called The Siq. There a narrow winding path, with sheer cliff faces rising hundred of metres on either side, snakes into the mountain until you reach the main square, known as The Khazneh. This spectacular façade, which movie fans will recognise from Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade, is the gateway to the many other sights hidden inside the complex.
Photo: AFP
Photo: AFP
