Carved in Sandstone

The iconic rose-red facades of Petra, carved directly into the sheer rock faces of a Jordanian canyon, are globally recognized. However, the true genius of the people who built it-the Nabataeans-was not their spectacular masonry, but their invisible mastery of a resource far more precious than stone: water. How did a thriving metropolis of 20,000 people survive in an unforgiving, arid desert tha...