Ancient wonder and adventure in Petra

The 2,000-year-old ancient city of Petra is Jordan's most impressive visitor attraction, drawing in holidaymakers from all over the world.

Considered by some as the eighth wonder of the ancient world, it is a city carved into a mountain, accessible only through a narrow gorge.

However, though its position among the other ancient wonders was never confirmed, it is in the running for one of the new seven wonders of the world - a competition being run by a Swiss-based non-profit organisation where the world can vote on seven new wonders.

Petra is in the shortlist of 21 new wonders, alongside the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal in India, the Acropolis in Greece, Stonehenge in the UK and the Egyptian Pyramids of Giza, the results of which will be announced on July 7th 2007.

Located 160 miles south of Amman, Petra has lots for travellers to explore and take in thanks to the hundreds of buildings, baths, temples, gateways, colonnaded streets, and drawings left from the Nabataen people who once lived there, as well as larger attractions such as an open-air theatre, a monastery (from the first-century), and the centre-piece of the site - the grand treasury building.

Rediscovered in the early 19th-century by a Swiss traveller, the city was known only to the local Bedouin from the 1300s onwards.

However, visitors to the site will not be surprised the city was once thought to be lost. The narrow gorge leading to the city is over a kilometre long, and is flanked by 80-metre high cliffs.

Motor vehicles cannot travel to the rose-red city, so if the desert heat gets too much to walk, you can take the weight off your feet by travelling the site on a donkey or camel, or splash out on a ride with a horse-drawn cart.

If the ancient site looks familiar in some strange way, it may well be down to the fact Petra was used as a backdrop in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

For more information on Jordan see www.visitjordan.com

Among the tour operators with holiday itineraries for Jordan including Petra are Exodus, Responsible Travel, Kuoni, and Iglu