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Photo of the Day

October 16, 2003

Nabataean Cliffs, Petra, Jordan, 1998

Photograph by Annie Griffiths Belt

"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