Jordan
Petra (Wadi Musa)
An entire city cut into desert cliffs by the Nabataeans, then lost to the outside world for a thousand years.
Petra is a whole Nabataean city carved into rose-red sandstone cliffs: hundreds of tombs, a rock-cut theatre, temples and a colonnaded street spread across several square kilometres of desert canyon. You arrive through the Siq, a kilometre-long crack in the rock that opens without warning onto Al-Khazneh, the Treasury. Beyond it the site keeps going for hours, up 800 rock-cut steps to Ad-Deir, the Monastery, and along ridge trails above the tombs. Wadi Musa, the hillside town at the gate, is where everyone sleeps.
Suggested stay
2–3 days
Language
Arabic
Currency
JOD
Timezone
UTC+3
Why you'll love Petra (Wadi Musa)
The Siq a kilometre of canyon with the walls closing overhead, then a sliver of carved facade appearing through the last gap - the best-staged arrival anywhere.
The scale the Treasury is the postcard, but Petra runs for kilometres, with a theatre cut for thousands, a temple district and trails climbing every ridge.
Rock and colour bands of red, ochre and violet swirl through the sandstone, and the facades change hour by hour as the light works down the walls.
The climbs 800 steps to the Monastery, the stairs to the High Place of Sacrifice, and the Al-Khubtha ledge looking straight down onto the Treasury.
Best time to visit
Sep-Jun
14-33° days
30.322° N, 35.480° E
UTC+3 · Asia/Jerusalem
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Weather & when to go to Petra (Wadi Musa)
Month by month: typical highs and lows, rainfall and rain days.
✓ Best Sep-Jun
Watch for Aug extreme heat risk
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
When to avoid Petra (Wadi Musa)
No bad season, only a bad time of day: in July and August the sandstone throws heat back at you by mid-morning, so walk at opening and rest through the afternoon. Winter days are short and the nights genuinely cold up on this plateau, and a rare heavy downpour will close the Siq on flash-flood risk.
Top things to do in Petra (Wadi Musa)
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The Siq and Al-Khazneh - walk in through the canyon
history scenic 👍 PopularFrom the gate it is a warm-up past the Djinn Blocks and the Obelisk Tomb before the gorge narrows to a few metres wide, walls two hundred metres high, Nabataean water channels still cut along both sides. The last bend frames the Treasury in a slot of light. Get there at opening and you may have it nearly to yourself.
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Ad-Deir (the Monastery) - climb the 800 steps
hiking history 👍 PopularA long rock-cut staircase winds up a side wadi past tea stalls and Bedouin stands to the largest facade at Petra, wider and plainer than the Treasury and standing over an open plateau rather than a canyon. Viewpoints a few minutes further on look out west towards Wadi Araba. Allow half a day from the gate and back.
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Al-Khubtha trail - the ledge above the Treasury
hiking scenic ⭐ Highly recommendedStairs behind the Royal Tombs climb to a ledge that looks straight down on Al-Khazneh from above, the single best view in Petra and the one most day visitors never reach. Around an hour up, steep and exposed in places. Late afternoon light hits the facade; the trail closes before dusk, so check the last entry time.
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High Place of Sacrifice - the altar ridge and Wadi Farasa
hiking history ⭐ Highly recommendedSteps rise from beside the theatre to a flat summit with rock-cut basins and drainage channels, and a full sweep over the basin. Rather than going back the way you came, descend the far side through Wadi Farasa past the Lion Monument, the Garden Tomb and the Roman Soldier Tomb, ending near Qasr al-Bint.
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The Royal Tombs - Urn, Silk, Corinthian and Palace
history scenicThe east cliff carries four huge facades in a row. The Urn Tomb sits on arched vaults and was reused as a Byzantine church; the Silk Tomb has the most extravagantly banded sandstone at Petra; the Palace Tomb apes a multi-storey building front. Best in the first hour of light, when the whole wall goes copper.
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Petra by Night - the Siq by candlelight
culture arts history 👍 PopularOn set evenings the canyon is lined with paper lanterns and walked in silence to the Treasury, where several hundred people sit on the sand for Bedouin pipe and rababa music and mint tea. It is a slow, deliberately theatrical hour. Numbers are capped and tickets sell out in spring and autumn, so arrange it as soon as you arrive.
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The theatre and the Colonnaded Street - the Roman city
history culture artsThe Nabataeans cut a theatre for several thousand straight into the hillside, slicing through older tombs to do it. Past it the paved main street runs west between the Great Temple, the market terraces and Qasr al-Bint, the only major free-standing building still upright, with the Byzantine church and its mosaic floors on the slope above.
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Little Petra (Siq al-Barid) - the caravan suburb
history off beaten pathA short gorge north of the main site where caravans were watered and housed: carved dining rooms, cisterns and stairways packed into a few hundred metres. The Painted House keeps rare Hellenistic frescoes of vines and cupids on its ceiling. Neolithic Beidha, one of the oldest excavated villages anywhere, sits beside it.
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Little Petra to the Monastery - the back trail in
hiking off beaten pathA guided cross-country route over the ridges from Siq al-Barid that drops onto Ad-Deir from above, reversing the usual day and skipping the Siq entirely. Two to three hours over open rock and Bedouin paths, no shade and no water, then the whole site downhill in front of you.
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Petra Museum - what came out of the tombs
history culture artsBeside the visitor centre, a well-built modern museum of Nabataean statuary, inscriptions, pottery and the water engineering that made the city possible. Twenty minutes here before you walk in makes the difference between looking at facades and reading them. Air conditioned, and a sensible place to wait out the middle of a hot day.
Best areas to stay in Petra (Wadi Musa)
$ Budget $$ Mid-range $$$ Premium
Lower Wadi Musa (by the gate)
First through the gate $$Hotel strip walking distance from the entrance
Explore hotels in Lower Wadi Musa (by the gate) →
Upper Wadi Musa (Ain Musa end)
Budget and local life $Working hilltop town, shops and cheaper rooms
Explore hotels in Upper Wadi Musa (Ain Musa end) →
Umm Sayhoun
Bedouin homestays $Bedouin village above the back road in
Explore hotels in Umm Sayhoun →
Taybeh
Quiet with a view $$$Quiet old village on the southern ridge
Explore hotels in Taybeh →
Little Petra and Beidha
Desert camp stay $$Desert camps under the northern cliffs
Explore hotels in Little Petra and Beidha →
Live nightly prices from Booking.com, Agoda and others, centred on Petra (Wadi Musa)
Getting to & around Petra (Wadi Musa)
Getting there
Petra is reached by road: roughly 3 hr south from Amman on the Desert Highway, or about 2 hr north from Aqaba. Everything arrives in Wadi Musa, the town on the hill above the gate.
Coach
Petra visitor centre, Wadi Musa
The daily scheduled coach from Amman takes around 4 hr with a stop and sets down beside the visitor centre, returning the same afternoon. Book ahead in spring and autumn.
Drive
Wadi Musa
About 3 hr from Amman on the fast Desert Highway, or 5 hr or so on the King's Highway through Madaba, Kerak and Dana, which is the far better road to see.
Bus
Wadi Musa
Coaches and minibuses run up from Aqaba in roughly 2 hr, the usual link for anyone flying into the Red Sea or crossing the border there.
Cruise
Aqaba
Aqaba is a Red Sea cruise call and Petra its standard shore excursion, around 2 hr each way by coach for a few hours on site.
Getting around
On foot inside Petra
The site is walked. Gate to the Treasury is about 2 km, on to Qasr al-Bint another 2 km, with the Monastery stairs on top of that.
Free
Horse to the Siq mouth
A short ride on the open stretch between the gate and the Siq entrance only; handlers work for tips and the horses go no further.
TBC
Carriage through the Siq
Two-seat carts run the canyon to the Treasury, reserved in principle for visitors with limited mobility. Fast and bumpy over the paving.
TBC
Donkey or mule to the Monastery
Bedouin handlers work the stair climb to Ad-Deir. Animal condition varies and plenty of visitors prefer to walk it.
TBC
Taxi in Wadi Musa
The town is strung down one long hill, so taxis link the upper town, the hotel road and the gate in a few minutes.
TBC
Day trips from Petra (Wadi Musa)
Wadi Rum
1-2 daysDesert valley and camps
Sandstone massifs rising straight off red sand, reached by jeep with Bedouin drivers: the Khazali canyon inscriptions, Burdah rock bridge, Lawrence's Spring and the dunes at Umm Fruth. Best taken as an overnight in a camp, when the wind drops and the sky is completely dark.
Getting there
car | tour
About 1.5-2 hr each way by road
Little Petra and Beidha
Half dayNabataean caravan suburb
A miniature version of the main site in a cool, shaded gorge, with carved dining halls, cisterns and the frescoed ceiling of the Painted House. The Neolithic settlement of Beidha next door is one of the oldest excavated villages in the world.
Getting there
car | tour
About 20 min each way by road
Dana Biosphere Reserve
Full dayCliff-edge nature reserve
Jordan's largest reserve drops from highland plateau to the Rift Valley floor in one enormous stepped wadi. The stone village of Dana hangs over the rim, and marked trails run down through juniper and sandstone towards Feynan. Good birdlife and almost no crowds.
Getting there
car
About 1-1.5 hr each way by road
Shobak Castle
Half dayCrusader hilltop fortress
Montreal, the first castle the Crusaders built east of the Jordan, stands alone on a bare cone of hill with orchards below. Ruined and half-restored, with Ayyubid inscriptions across the walls and a pitch-dark stepped tunnel cut down to the water source.
Getting there
car
About 40 min each way by road
Aqaba and the Red Sea
Full dayCoral reefs and port town
Jordan's only coastline, where fringing reef starts a few metres from the shore and you can see Egypt, Israel and Saudi Arabia across the water. Snorkelling and diving along the south shore, plus a warm, relaxed town for a swim after days on rock.
Getting there
car | bus
About 2 hr each way by road
A little history of Petra (Wadi Musa)
The Nabataeans were an Arab people who settled these canyons around the fourth century BC and grew rich controlling the caravan roads that carried frankincense, myrrh and spices north out of southern Arabia. Their genius was water: dams, rock-cut channels and hundreds of cisterns that caught the winter floods and kept a desert city of perhaps twenty or thirty thousand people alive. Under Aretas IV, in the decades either side of the turn of the era, they carved the great tomb facades visitors come for, mixing Hellenistic columns and pediments with older Arabian forms.
Rome annexed the kingdom in AD 106 without a fight and made it the province of Arabia. Trade drifted to sea routes and to Palmyra, earthquakes wrecked the city in the fourth century and again in the sixth, and Petra shrank to a village. Crusaders fortified the hills above it, then Europe lost track of the place until the Swiss traveller Johann Ludwig Burckhardt talked his way in disguised as a pilgrim in 1812. The Bdoul Bedouin who had lived in the tombs for generations were rehoused above the site in the 1980s, and many still work in it.
Nabataeans make Raqmu, the city the Greeks called Petra, the capital of their caravan kingdom.
The reign of Aretas IV, the building peak: the Treasury, the Royal Tombs and most of the great facades are cut.
Rome annexes the Nabataean kingdom as the province of Arabia and paves the colonnaded street.
A major earthquake brings down much of the free-standing city, including the theatre's stage buildings.
Byzantine Petra builds churches over the ruins, then a second earthquake and shifting trade routes empty the site.
Crusaders raise Montreal at Shobak and a fort at al-Wu'aira above Wadi Musa, holding the valley for some seventy years.
Johann Ludwig Burckhardt reaches Petra disguised as a pilgrim and reports it to Europe for the first time in centuries.
Petra is inscribed as a World Heritage site; the Bdoul families living in the tombs are rehoused in the new village of Umm Sayhoun.
Carbonised scrolls found in the Byzantine church, the Petra Papyri, reveal daily life in the sixth-century town.
Know before you go
Payment
Cards & cash mixed
English
Widely spoken
Wifi
Workable
Power
Type C / F / G
230 V, 50 Hz
Dialing
+962
Extreme heat risk in this window; check current conditions before you go.
Mobile network & SIM card
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FAQs about Petra (Wadi Musa)
▸ When is the best time to visit Petra?
Spring and autumn are the sweet spot: mild for long days of walking and stairs, with good light on the facades. Winter is cool, quiet and short on daylight, and the nights are cold on this plateau. July and August are walkable if you start at opening and stop through the afternoon.
▸ How many days do you need at Petra?
Two full days is the honest answer. Day one covers the Siq, the Treasury, the Royal Tombs, the theatre and the Colonnaded Street; day two takes the Monastery stairs and either the High Place or the Al-Khubtha ledge. A single day gets you the postcard and misses the city.
▸ How much walking does Petra involve?
A lot. It is around 4 km from the gate to the far end of the main street before any climbing, and the Monastery adds 800 rock-cut steps. Ground is uneven sand and stone throughout. Carriages reach only the Treasury, and horses and donkeys are the alternative on the climbs.
▸ Is Petra by Night worth doing?
If you like the theatre of it, yes. Walking the Siq by lantern light in silence is genuinely memorable, though the sit-down at the Treasury is long and the crowd is large. It runs on set evenings and caps numbers, so sort tickets on arrival rather than the day itself.
▸ Can you visit Petra as a day trip from Amman?
It is done, but it is a hard day: roughly 3 hr each way plus the walk in and out, leaving a couple of rushed hours around the Treasury. Sleeping in Wadi Musa lets you be through the gate at opening, which is when the site is at its best.
▸ What is the difference between Petra and Little Petra?
Little Petra, or Siq al-Barid, is a separate small gorge a short drive north where caravans were housed and watered. It takes under an hour, has carved dining rooms and rare painted frescoes, and is free of crowds. It complements the main site rather than substituting for it.