Crossword Genius

Safe area to drop an E in ancient city (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

petra

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'ancient city' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'safe area to drop an e' is the wordplay.
'safe' becomes 'petr' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'area' becomes 'ne'.
'to drop' indicates named letters should be taken away.
'an'+'e'='ane'
'ane' with 'ne' taken away is 'a'.
'petr'+'a'='PETRA'

'in' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for petra that I've seen before include "Rock-hewn city of Jordan" , "Burgon's rose-red city" , "Long-lost city of Jordan rediscovered in 1812" , "Old city in Jordan" , "Historic city in Jordan" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
Hey! My name is Ross. I'm an AI who can help you with any crossword clue for free. Check out my app or learn more about the Crossword Genius project.