Petra jordan travel helps

Petra is the treasure of ancient world, hidden behind an almost impenetrable barrier of rugged mountains, boasting incomparable scenes that make it the most majestic and imposing ancient site still-standing nowadays.. It has been said "perhaps there is nothing in the world that resembles it", actually, for sure, there is nothing in the world that resembles it. The rock-carved rose-red city of Petra is full of mysterious charm, it was "designed to strike wonder into all who entered it".


History of Petra:

The site of Petra has been inhabited since very ancient times. Remains from the Paleolithic and the Neolithic periods have been discovered at Petra, and the biblical Edomites (Genesis 14:6, 36:20-30; Deut. 2:12) occupied the area about 1200 BC. Petra may be the city of Sela (which, like Petra, means "Rock") mentioned in the Old Testament (Judges 1:36; Isaiah 16:1, 42:11; Obad. 3; 2 Kings 14:7; 2 Chr. 25:12), but this is not certain.

The Nabateans

Petra achieved its greatest importance under the Nabateans, an ancient people whose original homeland was in northeastern Arabia. They migrated westward in the 6th century BC and eventually settled at Petra. Little is known about the Nabateans' history before 312 BC, when Petra was unsuccessfully attacked by Seleucid forces. The High Place of Sacrifice was probably built during this time.

As the Seleucid kingdom weakened in the 2nd century BC, the Nabataean kingdom increased in strength. The chief source of the Nabataeans' prosperity and powerspice trade that involved such distant places as China, Egypt, Greece, and India and passed from the Arabian interior to the coast. was their monopoly on the caravan

By the 1st century BC the rich and powerful Nabataean kingdom that extended from Damascus in the north to the Red Sea in the south, and Petra was home to as many as 30,000 people. It was during this period that the most impressive structures of Petra were built, including the Treasury, the Great Temple and the Qasr el-Bint el-Faroun.

A significant key to the city's success was the Nabataeans' ability to control and conserve water. Conduits and the remains of terracotta piping can be seen along the walls of the Outer Siq, which was part of an elaborate system for channelling water around the city.

Roman Period

Upon the Roman general Pompey's entry into Palestine (63 BC), the Nabataean King Aretas III became a Roman vassal, but he retained Damascus and his other conquests. Damascus was later annexed by the Roman emperor Nero (reigned AD 54–68).

In 105-106 AD the Roman emperor Trajan annexed the Nabatean kingdom as part of a major military campaign on Rome's eastern frontiers. The former Nabataean kingdom became the Roman province of Arabia Petraea. Bostra (Bozrah), east of the Jordan River, was chosen by the Romans as the provincial capital instead of Petra.

The final period of Nabataean history was one of peaceful prosperity as allies of Rome. Although after Roman annexation the Nabateans ceased to be an identifiable political group, Petra continued to thrive culturally. Hellenistic and Roman influences may be traced in the royal coinage, temple art, and rock-cut architecture at Petra.

In the 1st century AD the Siq was paved and the impressive classical theater was constructed. After annexation, Roman touches were added to Petra such as the colonnaded cardo (main street). A Nabataean-style tomb was built in Petra for the Roman governor of Arabia Sextius Florentius (127 AD), and a high-ranking Roman soldier was buried in another tomb. The Urn Tomb also dates from this period (2nd-3rd century).

Early Christian Period

Christianity arrived in the 4th century, and a Byzantine church, whose ruins can still be seen at Petra, was built around 450-500 AD. Various tombs and temples at Petra were also used as churches, including the Monastery (a cross carved in the wall gave the structure its popular name) and the Urn Tomb (turned into a church in 447).

But changing trade routes in the 2nd and 3rd centuires had already cause Petra's gradual commercial decline, and in 511, an especially bad earthquake (there were many) sealed the city's fate. Significant habitation of Petra seems to have ceased not long after this point, although there is evidence for a remodeling of the Petra Church around 600 AD.

Islamic and Crusader Periods

Islam arrived in the Arab invasion of the 7th century. Aaron's tomb, on a mountain near Petra, is an important Muslim shrine (holy also to Jews and Christians) and dates from the 14th century.

A Crusader outpost was built in Petra in the 12th century. After the Crusades, Petra became a "lost city," known only to local Arabs. It would lie hidden from the Western world for more than 500 years.

Modern Rediscovery

Petra was rediscovered by Johann Ludwig Burckhardt in 1812. The Swiss explorer was a brilliant student with a thirst for adventure, and in 1809 he was contracted by a London-based association to explore the "interior parts of Africa." Three years later, after intense study of Islam and Arabic, Burckhardt disguised himself as a Muslim scholar, took the name Ibrahim ibn Abdullah, and set out for Egypt. On his way, however, he was lured by local tales of a lost city in the mountains. Using the pretence that he wanted to offer a sacrifice to the Prophet Aaron, he convinced a guide to take him there, and in 1812 he became the first modern Westerner to see Petra.

After Burckhardt's discvoery, almost 50 visitors between 1818 and 1898, followed in his footsteps and published their impressions of the site throughout the 19th century. But until the 1920s, Petra was an inaccessible and inhospitable city where strangers were not particularly welcome.

In World War I, the British hero T.E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia") famously assisted Arab tribes revolting against Turkish rule. Beginning in 1916, he led many Arab guerilla operations in the desert, some launched from Wadi Rum near Petra. In one such operation, he trapped Turkish soldiers in the Siq in Petra.

Excavations from 1958 on behalf of the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem and, later, the American Center of Oriental Research added greatly to knowledge of Petra. Further excavations begun in 1993 revealed several more temples and monuments that provide insight into the political, social, and religious traditions of the ancient city.

In 1985 Petra was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Many influence, are apparent in the architecture of Petra; Assyrian, Egyptian, Hellenistic and Roman. Most of the visible remains date from the Roman period, yet somehow bear a unique Nabataean stamp. It is mostly the rock-cut tombs which remain today, though freestanding temples built of stone, the Qasr Al-Bint Temple and the Temple of the Winged Lions can also be seen.

Map Of Petra

Machu Picchu peru Travel Guide

Machu Picchu is a city located high in the Andes Mountains in modern Peru. It lies 43 miles northwest of Cuzco at the top of a ridge, hiding it from the Urabamba gorge below. The ridge is between a block of highland and the massive Huaynac Picchu, around which the Urubamba River takes a sharp bend. The surrounding area is covered in dense bush, some of it covering Pre-Colombian cultivation terraces.

Great Wall of China

Great Wall of China
The Great Wall of China, one of the greatest wonders of the world, was listed as a World Heritage by UNESCO in 1987. Just like a gigantic dragon, the Great Wall winds up and down across deserts, grasslands, mountains and plateaus, stretching approximately 8,851.8 kilometers (5,500 miles) from east to west of China. With a history of more than 2000 years, some of the sections are now in ruins or have disappeared. However, it is still one of the most appealing attractions all around the world owing to its architectural grandeur and historical significance.



The Great Wall we see today was mostly built during the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644). It starts from Hushan Great Wall in the east to Jiayuguan Pass in the west traversing Liaoning, Hebei, Beijing, Tianjin, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Gansu and Qinghai.

The Great Wall was key to protecting agriculture and resisting cavalry of the Huns and other warrior tribes from the north. The advantages of the enormous barrier diminished with the advancement of gunpowder and other weaponry.

The wall was originally built of stone, wood, grass and earth. In the Ming Dynasty bricks were produced in kilns set up along the wall. The bricks were transported by men carrying them on their backs, donkeys, mules and even goats had a brick tied to their head before being driven up a mountain.

Great Wall History

The Great Wall of China was built mainly to protect the Chinese Empire from northern invaders. The first sections were built in the Seventh Century BC when China was still divided into many small states.

The history of the Great Wall is said to start from the Spring and Autumn Periods when seven powerful states appeared at the same time. In order to defend themselves, they all built walls and stationed troops on the borders. At that time, the total length of the wall had already reached 3,107 miles, belonging to different states.

In 221 BC, the Emperor Qin absorbed the other six states and set up the first unified kingdom in Chinese history. In order to strengthen his newly born authority and defend the Huns in the north, he ordered connecting the walls once built by the other states as well as adding some sections of his own. Thus was formed the long Qin's Great Wall which started from the east of today's Liaoning Province and ended at Lintao, Gansu Province.

In the Western Han Dynasty, the Huns became more powerful. The Han court started to build more walls on a larger scale in order to consolidate the frontier. In the west, the wall along the Hexi corridor, Yumenguan Pass, and Yangguan Pass was built. In the north, Yanmenguan Pass and Niangziguan Pass in Shanxi were set up. Many more sections of the wall extended to Yinshan Mountain and half of the ancient Silk Road was along the Han's wall.
The Northern Wei, Northern Qi and Northern Zhou Dynasties all built their own sections but on a smaller scale than the walls in the Han Dynasty. The powerful Tang Dynasty saw peace between the northern tribes and central China most of the time, so few Great Wall sections were built in this period.

The Ming Dynasty is the peak of wall building in Chinese history. The Ming suffered a lot by disturbances from minority tribes such as the Dadan, Tufan and Nuzhen. The Ming court from its first emperor to the last ceaselessly built walls in the north. The main line started from Jiuliancheng near the Yalu River in the east to the Jiayuguan Pass in the west and measured over 4,600 miles. Besides adding many more miles of its own, the Ming emperors ordered enlargement of the walls of previous dynasties into double-line or multi-line walls. For example, out of Yanmenguan Pass were added three big stone walls and 23 small stone walls. Eleven Garrisons were distributed along the main line of the wall. The countless walls, fortresses, and watch towers made the country strongly fortified. In the early Qing Dynasty, some sections of the walls were repaired and several sections were extended. This great engineering work stopped in the middle of the Qing Dynasty.

Owing to its long history, natural disasters and human activities, many sections of the Great Wall are severely damaged and disappearing. Being a world-famous engineering project and witness to the rise and fall of Chinese history, the Great Wall, needs us to take immediate action to protect it!

The building styles of each dynasty added their own flavor and advanced the techniques learned from the previous.

Qin Dynasty

The first dynasty of China was the short-lived Qin Dynasty (221-206BC). The first emperor, Qin ShiHuang, was a tyrannical emperor who unified China by force and set about constructing one Great Wall - by joining, where possible, existing one and filling the gaps. He even sent scholars to work on the Great Wall - anyone who was deemed

unproductive. These workers faced arduous labor, and the constant danger of being attacked by bandits.

Most of the early Great Walls were composed of loose stone, but when the natural stone in an area was not sufficient, the engineers turned to another meth

od of wall building - a stoneless wall that was built using a wooden, rectangular frame that was then filled with loose soil. The soil was trampled down for many hours by a team of workers until it was solid. This process of filling and trampling would be repeated over and over until the wall reached the desired height.

Han Dynasty

The second dynasty to add to the Great Wall was the Han Dynasty (206BC-220AD). This dynasty rose to power in 206 BC after the fall of the Qin. The most notable contribution of the Han Dynasty is that they extended the Great Wall westwards through the Gobi Desert. Despite a lack of building materials, ingenious Chinese engineers found a solution. Their answer was similar to that of the Qin, but created a stronger wall.

This method involved first laying down a layer of willow reeds, possibly woven. Then a layer of gravel and a little water was applied and trampled solid. After the trampling, a new layer of reeds and gravel was added. This process would be repeated until the desired height was reached. Amazingly, some portions of this Great Wall are still standing, partly due to the dry conditions of the Gobi.

The Han also improved the watchtowers of the Great Wall - making them two storied to gain a better lookout.

The Great Wall we see today

Ming Dynasty

The last dynasty to build a northern wall was the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). This dynasty built the biggest, longest, strongest and most ornate Great Wall ever. These are the walls that we are familiar with today.

The early Great Wall was located much further north than the current Ming wall, with its eastern end at modern day North Korea. Very little of this first wall remains - although aerial photographs do reveal a low, long mound. The Great Wall that the Ming created was, more or less, completely new.

The Ming Emperors, having overthrown the Mongols from the north, devoted large amounts of material and manpower to making sure that they (and the other semi-nomadic peoples to the north) could not return.

Their methods of Great Wall building fused all that was learned by the two previous dynasties. First, a center of trampled earth was created. Then, around the firm center was applied a shell of stone and bricks. The bricks that were created by the Ming are so strong that they compare well with the ones we use today.

Near Beijing, the Great Wall is constructed from quarried limestone blocks and fired bricks.

The strong Ming wall was built across some of the most dangerous terrains in China, including steep mountains, sometimes on 75 degree inclines! It has been said that every fo

ot of the construction of this Great Wall cost one human life.

The Ming Dynasty Great Wall starts on the eastern end at ShanHai Pass, near QinHuangDao, in Hebei Province, next to Bohai Sea. It once spanned 9 provinces and 100 counties, but the final 500 kilometers of the Great Wall to the west have all but turned to rubble. Today, the wes

tern end of the Great Wall effectively ends at the historic site of JiaYuGuan Pass, in northwest GanSu Province, at the limit of the Gobi Desert and the oases of the Silk Road.

JiaYuGuan Pass was intended to greet travelers along the Silk Road. Although the Great Wall now ends at JiaYuGuan Pass, there are many watchtowers extending beyond there along the Silk Road.

In 1644, after two years of trying, the Manchus finally crossed the Great Wall by bribing an important general, Wu SanGui, to open the gates of ShanHai Pass and allow the Manchus into China. Legend has it that it took three days for the huge Manchu army to pass through

the Great Wall.

So began the Qing dynasty. After the Manchu conquered China, the Great Wall was of less strategic value, mainly because the Manchu extended their political control far to the north of it, much further than any previous Chinese dynasty.

The last Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty was a military fortification of great stren

gth. However, historians are sometimes dismissive of its net value. It was astonishingly expensive to build, maintain and garrison and the resources the Ming spent on the Great Wall could have been spent on other military capabilities. The fact remains that the Great Wall was of no help in preventing the fall of the Ming Dynasty.

However, only because the currently prevailing dynasty had weakened from within were invaders from the north able to advance and then conquer. Both the Mongols (Yu

an Dynasty, 1271-1368) and the Manchurians (Qing Dynasty, 1644-1911) were able take power not because of a weakness in the Great Wall but because of a weakness in the government. They took advantage of disenchantment and rebellion and stepped into the void of power without an extended war.

WatchTowers and Wall Design

Along the Ming Great Wall of China there are many watchtowers, spaced from less than a kilometer to several kilometers or more apart.

These were partly used to transmit military messages. Fire and smoke were the most efficient means for communication - fire was used at night and smoke during the day. Straw and dung was used for this. In 1468, a series of regulations set specific meanings to these signals: a single shot and a single fire or smoke signal implied about 100 enemies, two signals warned of 500, three warned of over a 1000 and so on. In this way, a message could be transmitted over more than 500 km of the Great Wall within a few hours

During the Ming Dynasty, two-storied watchtowers were built on the Great Wall in strategic places. The ground floor was used for living, and storing food and weapons, and the top floor was used as a high lookout platform and also for defense. Canons were installed in strategic places, sometimes in watchtowers but also along the wall.

The watchtowers also provided a place to retreat to, if necessary, from attackers who had scaled the Great Wall. Inside, the watchtowers have narrow and puzzling layouts to confuse any infiltrators. The internal passageways and staircases were unique and restricted. This allowed defenders to pick off attackers one by one.

Barracks and administrative centers were located at larger intervals along the Great Wall. Small armies were garrisoned along the length of the wall to provide early warning of invasion and a first line of defense.

The outer parapet of the Great Wall is crenelated with merlons almost 2 m high from the base of the wall. The merlons provided protection from incoming fire while the gaps allowed fire at invaders.

Travel Map of The Greatwall