Photographs show different viewpoints, dates and conditions. They do not establish current access to a particular route. Every image is credited below.
Petra becomes more interesting when you look beyond its most elaborate façades. A desert city needed workable approaches, places to live and a means of managing water. The Siq is both a dramatic introduction and an opportunity to notice how human intervention follows the rock. Further into the site, ordinary spaces help restore a sense of the city behind the monuments.
Decide whether your priority is a broad first visit or a longer uphill excursion. The distance back to the entrance belongs in the day's plan too.