Petra

Like Petra, Hegra boasts stunning sandstone cliffs and carved rock formations that have withstood the test of time

Tending to his camels in Petra, Jordan's spectacular archaeological marvel hidden deep in a desert canyon, Hussein Bdoul is all smiles: The tourists are back.

After years in which the COVID-19 pandemic turned the storied "Rose City" into a ghost town, the father of seven is back at work, offering visitors rides on his decorated animals.

Horses and mules have long drawn tourist carriages through Jordan's ancient city of Petra, but animal rights concerns are driving a project to start replacing them with electric vehicles.

A small fleet of 10 rechargeable e-carts now take visitors through the rose-colored Siq or gorge leading to the famed capital of the Nabateans, which dates back to the first century BC.

For over two millennia the ancient city of Petra has towered majestically over the Jordanian desert. Today its famed rose-red temples hewn into the rockface lie empty and silent.    

As the novel coronavirus spread around the world, Jordanian authorities imposed a lockdown, and the last tourists left on March 16, a day before the Hashemite kingdom closed its borders.    

One of the seven new wonders of the world, the city of secrets, Petra, has become particularly popular since the release of one of Indiana Jones' series and has since attracted millions of tourists from around the world.

Jordan has suspended a free trade agreement with Turkey as the deal negatively affected local industries, state-run Petra news agency reported on March 12.

Construction works to build a new concrete retaining structure began on Tuesday in Kralja Petra Street in northern Kosovska Mitrovica.

This new "structure" is 70 centimeters tall, 120 centimeters wide, and replaces a retaining wall that was torn down in the town's main street on Sunday, Tanjug is reporting.

Turkish Airlines and the Petra Development and Tourism Authority have signed a "marketing sponsorship" agreement, granting Turkish Airlines passengers who travel to Petra generous discounts on entry tickets into Jordan's most popular heritage sites when they present their boarding passes.