So what happens when you show a kid, with a travelers heart, a movie like Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark? Answer: They never forget the hero riding through the winding narrow passageway toward a magnificent structure carved in the red rock.

Petra has been on my list since I learned the location of this amazing movie site seen as a child. However, Petra and nearby desert of Wadi Rum is host to what would seem several larger than life Hollywood locations. Let me tell you, I have been there and these sites and are not just a creation of a cinematography technical trick.

No, the sights in Jordan are actually “larger than amazing” and other films that would use southern Jordan as a movie backdrop include the recent Transformers: The Revenge of the Fallen to, the epic film, Lawrence of Arabia.

Petra and Wadi Rum were both inhabited by the Nabataeans which settled in the area in the fourth century BC.

Petra was a large city that was a meeting caravan for merchants from the Silk Road. The community was able control the water supply and create and oasis in the middle of the desert. It had dams to divert the flash floods from a heavy rain and piped in drinking two water systems for the animals, plants and humans.

These innovations lead to a thriving community that inhabited the area until later Roman times when trade was rerouted to the sea. An earthquake in the fourth century sealed its fate, Petra became a lost city, unknown to the world, until a Swiss man rediscovered it in 1812.

The famous Treasury in the Indiana Jones movie is actually a tomb. The Monastery, made famous by the Transformer: Revenge of the Fallen movie is also found in Petra. However there are many buildings carved into the rock which would take several days to fully discover. I found a crazy local guide who insisted on maximizing my time in the lost city.

I saw the sunset past the Monastery from a canvased covered tea house named the “MOST BEST VIEW” by the merchant. After the sun went down my guide ensured me that riding a mule in the dark was perfectly safe. However, the mule was within less than an inch of falling off the cliff on several occasions and I was sure it could not see in the dark.

I held onto the front strap with my left hand and back harness with my right as tightly as I could. I had decided that “if I was going down then the mule was going” with me. I leaned back as far as I could and I was sure that this method of transport, at this time of night, was a bad idea. But I went with it anyway.

The animal clomped down the hill at an eighty or more degree angle. I was positive that walking down would be a better plan but we might miss the Petra by Night show insisted the guide. My guide ensured me that this was better way down the hill and though I did arrive safely some forty-five minutes later, I am sure that I am now well prepare to compete in the World Famous Omak Suicide Race after this mule ride.

I left the ancient city after the night light show and found there was more to discover the next day but still did not see everything. So I someday I hope to return and see the temple at the top of the hill and Arron’s tomb, brother of Moses, at the top of another hill.

I explored enough to get a feel for the greatness of it all, including the engineering feats, to create this city more than two thousand years ago. Oh, how wonderful it would have been to see it in it heyday with sculptures on the walls as you enter the city through the long and narrow passageway.

The Nabatean community also inhabited the desert of Wadi Rum where petroglyphs from as early as the fourth century BC can be found. Both white and red sand can be found in this desert and the brilliant colors are a reflection on the mineral deposits in the rocks.

I spent the night sleeping by a campfire in the desert, just outside of the local Bedouin village in the area. The sandstone and granite hills have been weathered by the environmental elements such as wind and rain to create unique shapes in the rocks. As we toured the desert landscape by jeep and were able to see the location of the film Lawrence of Arabia.

I hope to return one day with my brother who also remembers the Treasury from Indiana Jones….But until our return, we still have the movies.