Appeared in front of me at the end of the Siq was the impressive Al-Khazneh (Treasury). I first learned about this place several years ago and marveled at those magnificent facades of its buildings carved out from the rugged landscapes. Moments like this always put me into a trance, when some familiar image which I had known for quite some time from other sources e.g. magazines, television or the like, finally appeared in reality, where the chiseled rock was within reach, with cold wind brought over the smell of sands and of antiquity, with the murmur of camels drifting by; all senses started shattering doubts and replacing old dreams with new realities.

Wandering in Petra was like wandering back in time, especially after hordes of tourists swept past, leaving me alone to listen to the whispers of the ancient age.

The walk up to Al-Deir (the Monastery) through rugged mountains took me quite a while, it was one of the high places in Petra, overlooking from a clifftop nearby was an ocean of barren and rugged landscapes, and Petra was a concealed city within, with the main access through a narrow crack, the Siq. I couldn't help being amazed by both the stunning views of natural environment and monumental buildings carved out from it.

The Nabataeans strategically built their capital here, on a pass through Shara mountains that divided ancient Syria and Arabia, thrived on the trade route where caravans with spices, silks and such like passing through. However, this natural fortress could not protect them from the power of nature herself, they abandoned the city after several earthquakes, Petra was forgotten and gradually disappeared from most maps since, until rediscovered by a young Swiss explorer, Johann Burckhardt in 1812.

As I watched the day melt into night while having a traditional Bedouin dinner at the village of Wadi Musa outside Petra, almost 200 years have passed since Burckhardt's re-discovery, but a large portion of Petra's urban centre still remains hidden from view, waiting to show its glory once again to the world.