The rose red city

In this week's reader postcard Jennifer Devon visits the ancient city of Petra in Jordan Petra It was this small Edward Lear painting in Oamaru's Forrester Gallery that started it all.

Such an exotic name.

My imagination and interest were piqued.

I immediately set to on the internet.

What I discovered about this ancient city, half as old as time itself, soon had me completely enthralled and in October last year I made the journey to Jordan to visit and see it for myself, just as Edward Lear had so many years ago.

Petra was constructed by the ancient Nabateans as their capital city in about 100BC.

In 1985 it was made a Unesco World Heritage Site and has more recently been declared one of the seven wonders of the world.

The first thing about visiting the site is the dramatic approach.

I had read and heard about this but nothing quite prepares you for its magnificence.

A 1km-long chasm or siq, a long narrow gorge whose steeply rising sides all but obliterate the sun, provides a dramatic contrast for the magic to come as it eventually opens out on to a natural square and there, suddenly, right in front of you, is Petra's most famous monument, The Treasury building, its intricately carved facade glowing in the dazzling sunlight.

It is known as "the rose red city" and the buildings are all carved into the area's golden-hued rock, which, with the sun's rays, seems to glow a rose-red colour.

More facades beckon you on kilometre after kilometre as gradually the city unfolds itself.

The sheer size and scale of the city and the craftsmanship of the beautifully carved facades is staggering.

And the amazing thing is that archaeologists have only excavated about one third of the site.

The highlight of the visit for me was the 800-step climb up to The Monastery, the site's largest monument on its highest point.

The trek takes about an hour on foot or you can choose the option of a guided donkey ride.

After a full day at the site I really only feel I managed to touch upon it but exhausted as we were it was back to our driver Zeeshan and from Petra we were off to the Wadi Rum desert, camping under the stars with a Bedouin tribe.

It's amazing where one small painting can take you. - Jennifer Devon