Breakaway Destination Guides (International)

Petra, an archaeological site in the Arabah, Ma'an Governorate, Jordan, lying on the slope of Mount Hor in a basin among the mountains which form the eastern flank of Arabah (Wadi Araba), the large valley running from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba

It is renowned for its rock-cut architecture. Petra is also one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. The Nabataeans constructed it as their capital city around 100 BCE.

The site remained unknown to the Western world until 1812, when it was introduced to the West by Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt. It was famously described as "a rose-red city half as old as time" in a Newdigate prize-winning sonnet by John William Burgon.

Excavations have demonstrated that it was the ability of the Nabataeans to control the water supply that led to the rise of the desert city, creating an artificial oasis. The area is visited by flash floods and archaeological evidence demonstrates the Nabataeans controlled these floods by the use of dams, cisterns and water conduits.

The Dead Sea "ea of Salt" is a salt lake in Jordan to the east and in the West Bank and Israel to the west. The first such prehistoric lake is named "Lake Gomorrah." Lake Gomorrah was a freshwater or brackish lake that extended south of the current southern end of the Dead Sea.

Around three million years ago what is now the valley of the Jordan River, Dead Sea, and Wadi Arabah was repeatedly inundated by waters from the Mediterranean Sea. The waters formed in a narrow, crooked bay which was connected to the sea through what is now the Jezreel Valley.

The Dead Sea has attracted visitors from around the Mediterranean basin for thousands of years. Biblically, it was a place of refuge for King David. It was one of the world's first health resorts (for Herod the Great), and it has been the supplier of a wide variety of products, from balms for Egyptian mummification to potash for fertilizers.

Its surface and shores are 422metres (1,385ft) below sea level, the lowest elevation on the Earth's surface on dry land. The Dead Sea is 378m (1,240ft) deep, the deepest hypersaline lake in the world. It is also one of the world's saltiest bodies of water, with 33.7% salinity.

The Jordan River is the only major water source flowing into the Dead Sea, although there are small perennial springs under and around the Dead Sea, creating pools and quicksand pits along the edges.[7] There are no outlet streams.

The Semitic root of the name "Jerusalem" is sometimes thought to be "s-l-m" meaning peace,[17] harmony or completeness. A city called Rušalimum or Urušalimum appears in ancient Egyptian records as one of the first references to Jerusalem

According to Hebrew scripture, King David reigned until 970 BCE. He was succeeded by his son Solomon, who built the Holy Temple on Mount Moriah. Solomon's Temple (later known as the First Temple), went on to play a pivotal role in Jewish history as the repository of the Ark of the Covenant.

As Rome became stronger it installed Herod as a Jewish client king. Herod the Great, as he was known, devoted himself to developing and beautifying the city. He built walls, towers and palaces, and expanded the Temple Mount, buttressing the courtyard with blocks of stone

Today, the Western Wall, a remnant of the wall surrounding the Second Temple, is a Jewish holy site second only to the Holy of Holies on the Temple Mount itself

Pamukkale, meaning "cotton castle" in Turkish, is a natural site in south-western Turkey in the Denizli Province. The city contains hot springs and travertines, terraces of carbonate minerals left by the flowing water.

The ancient city of Hierapolis was built on top of the white "castle"which is in total about 2,700metres (8,900ft) long and 160metres (520ft) high. It can be seen from the hills on the opposite side of the valley in the town of Denizli, 20km away.

There are 17 hot water springs in which the temperature ranges from 35°C (95°F) to 100°C (212°F). The water that emerges from the spring is transported to the head of the travertine terraces and deposits calcium carbonate covering an expanse of 240metres (790ft) to 300metres (980ft).

The former Roman Bath of the ancient city of Hierapolis has been used as the site of the Hierapolis Archaeology Museum since 1984. Alongside historical artifacts from Hierapolis, there are also artifacts from Laodiceia, Colossae, Tripolis, Attuda and other towns of the Lycos valley.

Recognized as a World Heritage Sites together with Hierapolis. A few other places in the world resemble it, including the Mammoth Hot Springs in the USA and Huanglong in Sichuan Province of China. Hierapolis-Pamukkale was made a World Heritage Site in 1988.