The spectacular carved rock tombs of Petra in Jordan often top travel wishlists. But unlike many dream destinations, it’s actually fairly easy and not too expensive to visit Petra. There’s accommodation from tented camps to five-star resorts, there’s good public transport or it’s simple to drive yourself, it’s safe and the people are incredibly welcoming.

So if you want to visit Petra, which is the best way to do it? While plenty of companies offer organized tours, it’s also an easy place to visit independently. Here’s everything you need to know when planning a trip to Petra – including how to get there, the closest hotels, best times to visit and even the best places for a drink after a long day exploring.

Where Is Petra?

Petra is located about 150 miles south of both Jerusalem and Amman, the capital of Jordan, and about midway between Damascus, Syria, and the Red Sea, making it ideally suited as a hub of commerce in the area.

The site is considered significant by historians and archeologists alike because of its beautiful rock-cut architecture and innovative water management system, the latter of which made the region inhabitable, given that it is surrounded by desert and rugged, mountainous terrain.

Petra has also been referred to as the “Rose City” because of the color of the stones used in its buildings. It was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985.

City of Petra

The city of Petra was established as a trading post by the Nabateans, an Arab Bedouin tribe indigenous to the region in what is now southwestern Jordan.

The Nabateans living and trading in Petra soon accumulated a significant amount of wealth, and an envious Greek Empire attacked the city in 312 B.C. This event marks the first reference to Petra in recorded history.

Petra Today

After the eighth century, when Petra was largely abandoned as a trading center, its stone structures were used for shelter by nomadic shepherds for several centuries.

Then, in 1812, the unique ruins of Petra were “discovered” by Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt. He described the ruins of the once-great city in chronicles of his travels.

With the western world now aware of their existence, they soon attracted the interest of architects and scholars, among others. Starting in 1929, British archaeologists Agnes Conway and George Horsfield, as well as scholars Tawfiq Canaan and Ditlef Nielsen, launched a formal project to excavate and survey Petra.

Numerous findings have been made in the decades since, including the 1993 discovery of Greek scrolls dating to the Byzantine period as well as the more recent documentation via satellite imaging of a previously unknown monumental structure buried beneath the sands of the area.