More than 2000 years ago, Nabateans built a trading post in the desert, creating an odd cultural brew of Assyrian, Greek, Roman, and Egyptian features on their rockface tombs, giant columned monasteries, and cryptic inscriptions along the sides of a towering gorge. Romans later took over this town—a fact made obvious by the 4000-seat Roman theater that remains today—and the Byzantines housed important outposts of Christianity here. However, shifting world power, a series of earthquakes, and the end of the Nabatean civilization led to the abandonment of Petra, which stood for the next 1500 years as a curiosity for nomadic Bedouins and nothing more. They desecrated tombs and cleared out the remaining structures, and the ancient city faded from memory. Petra returned to the collective consciousness when Johann Burckhardt, an early 19th-century Swiss explorer, impersonated a Christian pilgrim and convinced a guide to take him to the ancient city. It has since become one of the major tourist attractions in the Middle East and may be some of the most spectacular ruins on Earth.

In fine Imperialistic style, Bedouins have since been kicked out of Petra proper and now live in a nearby housing complex, focusing most of their commercial efforts on tourism. The town of Wadi Musa, built up outside Petra once it became a major destination, is basically a tourist town as well, and gives a glimpse into the world of two millennia ago. But no matter how much your imagination runs away into the lifestyles of the ancients, beggar children hawking postcards and aggressive donkey rental salesmen will ground you in Petra’s most recent incarnation.