The ancient Jordanian city known for rock-cut architecture and its rose-red color is Petra.
Petra lies in southern Jordan and was the major city of the Nabataeans, an Arab people who established a powerful trading kingdom in the region. Its position between Arabia, the Levant, Egypt, and the Mediterranean helped it prosper as a caravan center, while its surrounding mountains offered natural protection.
Many of Petra’s most famous monuments were carved directly into rose-colored sandstone cliffs. The Treasury, Monastery, tombs, temples, and ceremonial spaces reveal the city’s distinctive architecture, but Petra was also an engineering achievement: its inhabitants built channels, cisterns, and dams to manage scarce water in a dry environment.
Petra was known to its inhabitants as Raqmu and was later incorporated into the Roman Empire in 106 CE. It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985 and was named one of the New Seven Wonders of the World in 2007. The “Rose City” nickname describes its stone, not the presence of roses.