ocr: Nabataeans to choose Petra for their capital; the site is a natural fortress and controls important routes. It lies high up in the sandstone mountains bordering the Jordanian plateau and overlooking the Wadi el Arabah, the continuation of the great Syrian Rift Valley south of the Dead Sea. The sandstone is soft and friable and has been weathered into a thousand fantastic shapes by wind and water; the variegated bands of reds, yellows, browns and purples that run through the rock in no apparent geologic order only add to the fantasy. Two sweeping arcs of these mountains isolate Petra on the eas ...
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