The ‘lost city’ featured in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is hiding an INCREDIBLE secret

Movie lovers will know Petra as the lost city visited by Indiana Jones during his hunt for the holy grail.

But in the ancient world, this stunning place was famous for a technological achievement that would have astonished even the hard-bitten, whip-cracking archaeologist.

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A team of diggers have uncovered evidence of a "hanging gardens" in the city of Petra, which was carved right out of solid rock by a civilisation called The Nabataeans.

This wonder of the ancient world used an advanced irrigation system to feed a lush garden in the middle of the barren desert, as well as a series of fountains and pools which would have seemed like paradise to parched travellers.

Now the complexity of the mechanisms behind these ancient waterworks have been exposed for the first time.

Leigh-Ann Bedal, associate professor of anthropology from Penn State Behrend College, . "The pool’s monumental architecture and verdant garden served as a visual celebration of the Nabataeans’ success at providing water to the city centre."

Located in modern day Jordan, Petra was built in the 1st century BC and was inhabited by about 20,000 people at its peak.

Normally, great cities are based near rivers, allowing easy access to the water which is the lifeblood of any human settlement.

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Petra, on the other hand, enjoyed a maximum 15cm of rainfall every year, forcing its inhabitants to develop water management systems which appear impressive to this very day.

The latest dig uncovered evidence of a massive, 44 metre wide swimming pool, grassy lawns and paths shaded by trees.

Archaeologists exposed a 10 metre deep shaft connected to a series of aqueducts which carried water from the hills outside Petra.

This complex series of water channels terminated in the huge pool, but actually stretched across the city, with a series of underground channels and pipes guiding rainwater to storage cisterns and even tanks which filtered the water.

Using their incredible irrigation system, locals were able to produce wine and olive oil as well as fruits and other crops.

Petra was known as a water stop among the traders who carried spices and other goods from the East into the cities of Europe.

However, it was later taken over by the Romans and lost its preeminence when they discovered sea routes between between the West and East.