Petra is a magical place -- when I first visited, I was amazed by the variety of colors in nature. The layers of rock range from orange to green to pure black. 

Honestly, when you see pictures of those who visit Petra, the beautiful touristy picture comes from the Siq (which means canyon), where rock is cracked open and layers of stone revealed. But, what I didn't realize, is that Petra is so much more! It is a huge city with Roman ruins and ancient ruins full of royal tombs of the dead. 

For me, the most interesting part of Petra was that buildings are carved directly into the stone -- rather than being built up from blocks of stone like the pyramids and other ancient buildings. 

The other facinating part about Petra is that most of the ruins from the Nabateans are tombs -- there are NOT a lot of ruins from daily life because at that time they mainly lived in tents or other mobile types of homes. The major permanent structures were tombs.