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Petra is
a spectacular Nabatean city in western Jordan. With massive façades
that have been carved entirely out of the existing red sandstone,
Petra's magnificent temples and tombs are like no other religious
buildings in the world, and the surrounding rugged landscape dotted
with historical sites are a hiker's paradise.
Perched on a
hill at the edge of the Judean desert just 5 miles south of
Jerusalem, Bethlehem is the childhood home of the biblical
King David. It is also the birthplace of Jesus Christ and has been a
major site of Christian pilgrimage since the construction of the
Church of the Nativity.
A mountainous
walled city Jerusalem is sacred to the three great
monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam - which
means it is sacred to more than a third of the world's population.
For Jews, Jerusalem is the site of the Temple, now in ruins except
for the Western Wall; for Christians, it is the site of Christ's
death and resurrection; for Muslims, it is the site of the Prophet's
night journey to heaven. Jerusalem is therefore a major site of
pilgrimage for all three religions. | 
