Desert city of Petra is FLOODED and tourists are evacuated as freak heavy rainfall lashes Jordan
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Desert city of Petra FLOODED and tourists evacuated as heavy rains hit Jordan
- An estimated 1,700 tourists were forced to evacuate the World Heritage site
- Flood water from nearby mountains poured into the historic rose gold rock town
- Downpours in 2018 killed 13 people despite modern flood warning system
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The ancient rocky city of Petra was flooded after freak rain hit the archaeological site, forcing evacuations.
Water from nearby mountains in Jordan gushed into the iconic rose red city that has stood for 2,000 years.
Some 1,700 tourists and locals have been ordered to evacuate the area for their safety, after 13 died in similar flooding at the site in 2018.
Images from Jordan’s most-visited tourist attraction, 150 miles south of Jerusalem, show a river of water pouring into the gorge toward the entrance to the Petra temple as tourists flee in terror.
The ancient rocky city of Petra was flooded after freak rain hit the archaeological site, forcing evacuations.
The Petra Tourism and Development Region Authority said: “The Jordanian government has evacuated some 1,700 tourists in Petra due to heavy rains.”
In neighboring Maan, three people were injured in floodwaters after a minibus was swept away by raging torrents.
In 2018, floodwaters rose 13 feet and carried away more than a dozen people, forcing the evacuation of 4,000 people.
The previous fatal flash flood to hit Petra was in 1963 when 22 French tourists and a local guide died from rapidly rising waters.
Water from nearby mountains in Jordan gushed into the iconic rose red city that has stood for 2,000 years.
The Petra Tourism and Development Region Authority said: “The Jordanian government has evacuated some 1,700 tourists in Petra due to heavy rains.”
Images from Jordan’s most-visited tourist attraction, 150 miles south of Jerusalem, show a river of water pouring into the gorge.
About 1,700 tourists and locals were ordered to evacuate the area for their safety.
In response, Jordan’s Department of Antiquities built a dam to prevent water from entering the canyon leading to Al-Khazneh, known as the Treasury.
In 2014, the alarm system was installed for added protection, with sirens set to sound when the flood water rises above a certain level.
Petra is a city carved out of the sandstone hills that contain the burial chambers of the Nabateans, a tribe of wealthy traders whose civilization flourished between 200 B.C. C. and 100 d. c.
It became the Nabataean capital, strategically located on the main trade routes and ideal for collecting tolls from caravans carrying frankincense and myrrh.
The city dates from around 400 BC. C. when the Greeks tried to invade it in their first recorded reference in history.
Petra is a city carved out of the sandstone hills that contains the burial chambers of the Nabateans.
The Nabateans carved various structures out of the rock in the following centuries, with the iconic Al-Khazneh temple built as a mausoleum for King Aretas IV in the 1st century AD.
Although the remains of his UNESCO World Heritage Site appear massive, more than 90 percent of it is invisible, buried beneath the desert sands.
So far this year, more than one and a half million tourists have visited Petra.