Cinnamon-hued canyon walls tower over the trail that leads to the back door of Petra, a tunnel-like pathway whittled into the burnished landscape of Wadi Musa. When I emerge from the rocky cocoon of the canyon and witness the ancient city for the first time, I’m mesmerised by the immensity of the Monastery and the muted rainbow exteriors of otherwise dark and dank tombs. As I wander through the vast valley unfolding before me, I absorb the stories of the Nabataeans that reverberate throughout the site. Ancient aqueducts speak of the once-nomadic Arab tribe’s defeat at the hands of the Roman Em…