Petra is one of the world’s greatest attractions

Petra, Jordan is one of the  the world’s greatest must-see attractions according to the Guardian’s readers.

In 1845 John William Burgon took the Newdigate Prize for his poem Petra, referring to Petra, the inaccessible city in the present Jordan, which he had heard described but had never seen [wiki]:

It seems no work of Man’s creative hand,

by labour wrought as wavering fancy planned;

But from the rock as if by magic grown,

eternal, silent, beautiful, alone!

Not virgin-white like that old Doric shrine,

where erst Athena held her rites divine;

Not saintly-grey, like many a minster fane,

that crowns the hill and consecrates the plain;

But rose-red as if the blush of dawn,

that first beheld them were not yet withdrawn;

The hues of youth upon a brow of woe,

which Man deemed old two thousand years ago,

match me such marvel save in Eastern clime,

a rose-red city half as old as time.

See this beautiful interactive guide’s view of Petra [audio slideshow]. The pictures below of the rose-red city are from the slideshow:

via [guardian.co.uk]

 

See other world’s greatest attractions here.