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Nabataean Cliffs, Petra, Jordan, 1998

"Laced with channels, terraces, dams, and cisterns, the cliffs above Petra display the Nabataeans' skill at capturing and controlling rainwater—essential in a desert that gets only about six inches [15 centimeters] of rain a year. 'Hydrology is the unseen beauty of Petra,' says an engineer familiar with Nabataean techniques. 'Those guys were absolute geniuses.'"

—From "Petra: Ancient City of Stone," December 1998, National Geographic magazine

Photograph by Annie Griffiths Belt