Modern engineering and architecture has nothing compared to the way things were done over two thousand years ago! The city began to prosper as the capital of the Nabataean Empire from the first century BC and they traded in Frankincense, myrrh and spices. Petra later became part of the Roman Empire and thrived until a huge earthquake in 363 AD destroyed much of the city. This led to the downfall of the city and eventually it was abandoned. By the middle of the seventh century Petra was pretty much abandoned and was lost to all except the local Bedouin from the area. In 1812 a Swiss explorer set out to rediscover Petra, he dressed as an Arab & convinced the local Bedouin to take him to the lost city. And the rest is history!
We shared the narrow streets with horses, donkeys, camels and horses and carts but chose not to use any of them. They were rather smelly and skinny and might not have held the weight!!! One lady in our group rode a camel and a donkey, she was pretty pleased with herself but ended up losing her ipad so not sure it it was stolen or she was careless. Anyway, after getting back to the main visitor centre at 1.30 we were then driven to a nice restaurant for lunch. Thought a cold beer might be a treat but nothing available!!!!! Guess we are in Jordan! The local young men were quite handsome and I commented to someone that they all looked like a younger version of Lawrence of Arabia. Well, our guide told me that the men like to look attractive for their ladies and so apply kohl every Monday and Thursday!! These are the Bedouins, of course. 
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