Petra: History, Sights, Achievements | Middle East And North Africa

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PETRA

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Petra aqueduct
Petra (180 kilometers south of Amman) is an amazing place and Jordan's number one tourist draw. Hidden among colorful canyons, this fabled sandstone city was carved into solid rock cliff faces in a remote valley in southern Jordan by an ancient, mysterious people called the Nabateans. Petra was named one of the seven wonders of the modern world and is often visited by more than one million visitors a year.

Described once as the "rose-red city half as old as time," Petra is composed on many structures, most of them tombs, scattered over a fairly wide area. It takes at whole to visit the site. Many people spend a couple of days there. [Source: Don Belt, National Geographic, December 1998]

Among the ruins carved into the rose- and chocolate-colored cliffs are the famous Treasury, a gigantic monetary, Roman-style palace tombs, soaring temples, elaborate tombs, a Roman theater carved into a cliff, burial chambers, banquet halls, water channels, cultic installations, markets, public buildings and paved streets. A few Bedouins still live in the ruins of some of the caves.

Petra was the ancient capital of the Nabateans, a nomadic tribe who moved from Arabia to the Petra area around 2,400 years ago. They were major power in the the Middle East during the period between the decline of Greece and the rise of Rome. Little is known about the Nabateans. They lived primarily in a 400 square mile area around Petra. They left behind no written record. Ancient manuscripts described them as smart merchants and traders.

History of Petra

Petra was establish in the 4th century B.C. and flourished for 700 years. At its height during the Roman era, the Nabatean kingdom stretched as far north as Damascus and included parts of the Sinai and Negev deserts and ruled most of Arabia. Perhaps 30,000 people — a large number for an ancient city — lived hidden among the canyons in Petra, which was widely admired for its massive architecture and refined culture.

Word of Petra's wealth reached the Romans. In A.D. 106, the Emperor Trajan annexed the Nabatean kingdom into the Roman province of Arabia, with Petra as it's capital. By then Petra was declining as new trade routes that became part of the Silk Road opened to the north. When the city of Palmyra to the north in present-day Syria opened a major caravan route that connected with the sea trade routes from India and China, Petra declined quickly. Tombs were looted and some were made into churches by that Byzantines that displaced the Romans in the region in the A.D. 4th century. There were earthquakes in A.D. 363 and again 551. The last references to Petra in the historical record come from around 582.

Petra died, perhaps because it was no longer possible to maintain the complex water system, and was forgotten by the outside world. It disappeared from maps in the 7th century, was resurrected briefly in the 12th century as a Crusader communications outposts and was completely lost to West by the 16th century. It remained unknown to all but the Bedouins who occasionally lived there until it was rediscovered in the 19th century.

Spectacular Entrance to Petra

First Glimpse
After passing through the entrance gate at Petra visitors walk downhill on a wide pathway towards the Siq. On the right, several dozen meters past the ruins of the gateway are the Djinn Blocks, three massive stone monuments whose original purpose is not known. Some think they were temples dedicated to the Nabatean god Dushara and Atargatis (goddess of fertility). Others believe they are tombs, “Djinn” is Arabic for "sprits." Near the Djinn Blocks, on the other side of the Djinn Blocks is the Obelisk Tomb, named after the four obelisks on the upper story of the monument. The obelisk was the Nabatean funeral symbol. The nearby Bab Al-Siq Triclinium features a classical Nabatean design. Its three carved rooms are believed to have been used for banquets for the dead.

The Siq (about a half mile from the entrance) is a narrow, three-quarter-mile-long dry gorge that is used to reach the ruins of Petra. In some ways it is more spectacular than the ruins themselves. The towering 300-foot walls that rise up on both sides of a path, barely wide enough for three donkeys walking abreast, in some places are closer together at the top than the bottom and sunlight has difficulty penetrating through most of the day. Siq (pronounced "seek") means "dry gorge.

Describing his journey through Siq, to Petra, National Geographic reporter Thomas Abercrombie wrote: "For a mile the blood red sandstone passage burrows darkly downward, away from the warmth and glare of the desert sun; overhanging cliffs...obscure all but slivers of the sky. Across one glides a hawk. A paved road in its ancient heyday, my route is now a dry torrent bed strewn with boulders."

The entrance used to be marked by a Roman archway, of which only the vertical ruins are visisble. On the cliffs besides the path, about a meter off the ground, are remains of ancient channels that brought nourishing water into Petra. Above the channels you can see occasional inscriptions in ancient languages and niches with sculptures of gods, heros and rulers.

The Siq itself is a slot canyon similar to slat canyons found in Arizonad and Utah in the United States. It was carved out of the sandstones over tens of thousands of by ancient streams and flash floods. Tens of millions of years ago the entire region lay at the bottom of an ancient sea. The rock formations in the area were carved as the sea retreated by running water, rain and wind. The rock is mostly sandstone, colored by iron, copper and magnesium. The siq occasionally experienced dangerous flash floods. Twenty-three French tourist died in one in 1963.

Treasury and Place of Sacrifice of Petra

20120210-Petra Exiting_the_Siq_Petra.jpg The Treasury (at the end of the Siq) is best known as the site of the final scene of “” Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” . Chiseled and carved into a red sandstone, it is a magnificent 130-foot-high classical-style structure that looks like a red, rock-hewn Greek temple. According to a legend it once housed a royal treasure, but in reality it was a tomb for a Nabatean king.

The facade of the Treasury, sometimes brilliantly lit by the sun but more often covered in shadows, is the first thing visitors see when they emerge from the shadowy Siq. Abercrombie wrote: "At the lower end of the Siq, the shadows are pierced by a tall crack of rosy light. Beyond, the dark walls roll back like a curtain on a striking vision; Illuminated by the sun's first rays, an immense classical facade glows a hundred hues of crimson; its Corinthian capitals, its pediments and friezes shine bright and crisp as new."

Inspired by Hellenistic architecture, the facade is 30 meters wide and 43 meters high and was carved in the first century B.C. It has Corinthian columns, pediments and statues. Some scholars believe it may have been used at one time as a temple. The empty chambers of the Treasury reach far into the solid rock. Carvings on the facade depict Nabatean gods and goddess. The urn perched at the top of the monument, once believed to hold treasures of gold and jewels, gave birth to the monument’s name. The bullet holes visible on the walls are evidence perhaps that some raiders thought there was were some treasures inside somewhere.

Street of the Facades (after the Treasury) is a row of houses (tombs) with intricate carvings thought be of Assyrian origin. The Amphitheater (on the Street of the Facades) is cut into the side of a cliff. Originally built by the Nabateans and enlarged by the Romans, it has 7,000 seats made from blocks of stone.

The High Place of Sacrifice (reached by a long strenuous path and set of steps from the Street of Facades) is a sacrificial altar located on a 1035-meter-high ridge. Two seven-meter-high obelisks lie at the top. They are believed to represent the two most important Nabatean gods: Dushara and Al Uzza.

Tombs of Petra

The Royal Tombs (on the right side of the path, down from the Amphitheater) are perhaps the most impressive of Petra's 500 tombs after the Treasury and the Monastery. Small tombs are interspersed with the large ones. Some of the tombs are carved into beautiful-white-and-orange stripped rock.

The Urn Tomb (near the Amphitheater) is the largest of the Royal Tombs and is almost as large as the Treasury. Thought to have been carved around A.D. 70, the main chamber is 17-x-19 meters in size and was altered and used as a Byzantine Church in the A.D. mid-5th century. In front of the facade is large courtyard. Above the doorway are three chambers. The central chamber is blocked by a large stone, presumed to be a depictions of the man buried inside.

Silk Tomb (after the Urn Tomb) is smaller than the largest tombs and is badly damaged but is notable because of the brilliant red, yellows and gray that the ripple through the stone. The facade is fronted by a double cornice. The Corinthian Tomb (after the Silm Tomb) is known for its hodge-dodge of architectural elements. The top part is an imitation of the Treasury. The bottom is modeled after the Bab Al-Siq Tricilinium. The tomb has been badly damaged by earthquakes.

The Palace Tomb (after the Corinthian Tomb) is so named because it appears to be an imitation of a Roman palace and thus is believed to be one the newest tombs in Petra. The Sextius Florentinus Tomb (after the Palace Tomb) is the only dated tomb in Petra. Carved around A.D. 130, it was made for the Roman governor of Arabia and is dedicated to his son. Inscriptions over the doorway recounts the governor's life and achievements.

The Tomb of the Roman Soldier (reached by a long strenuous path and set of steps from the High Place of Sacrifice) was once connected to the Triclinium by a colonnaded courtyard. The style of the architecture and statues in Roman armor suggests the tomb was carved after the Roman annexation in A.D. 106. Nearby are the Broken Pediment Tomb, Renaissance Tomb, Triclinium, Garen Triclinium, and Lion Monument.

Colonnaded Street and Monastery at Petra

The Colonnaded Street (on the left of the main pathway between the Royal Tombs and the restaurant area) lies at the heart of Petra. It was once a bustling market palace, lined with shops and houses, and was the center of social and cultural life in Petra. Nothing remains of the shops and houses because they were made of perishable material like straw, wood and mud. The Colonnaded Street looks like something you would see in Greece. On the Royal Tomb side of the Colonnaded Street is the Nymphaeum. On the restaurant side is the Temenos gate. Across the The main path are a Byzantine Church, with wonderful mosaics, and the Winged Lion Temple.

The Monastery (reached by a half-mile, uphill path from Petra) is the largest of Petra's monuments. The facade measures 40-x-50 meters with a large empty chamber inside. Originally a temple or a tomb, it was an important pilgrimage site. Worshipers and priests used a processional route to congregate in the open area in front of the monument. From the A.D. 4th century onwards, during the Christian Byzantine period, it was used as a monastery. Crosses painted on the rear wall are still visible.

The path that leads to the Monastery includes 800 steps that have been cut into the rock. Along the way you pass the Lion Triclinium. Distant Spots at Petra include a ruined Crusader Fort, Moghar al Nassara tombs and the Snake Monument.

Huge Platform at Petra Discovered

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Petra tomb
In 2016, scientists, using, satellite imaging, announced that they had discovered a huge previously-unknown platform buried less than a kilometer from the center of Petra.Candida Moss wrote in the Daily Beast: The discovery is the equivalent of finding a new ancient structure less than 1000 meters from the Great Pyramids of Egypt. In an article published in the Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, archeologists Sarah Parcak, of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Christopher Tuttle, of Brown University, described how they located a giant platform (184 feet x 161 feet or about half the size of a football field) outside of the city. The large platform was topped with a smaller platform and a comparatively modest building. The original structure included columns and a staircase. The platform, the authors wrote, was unparalleled in the region. It’s like finding evidence of Madison Square Garden in a place and time that is completely unexpected. What was it doing there? What does it mean? [Source: Candida Moss, Daily Beast, June 19, 2016]

Remarkably, and despite its large size, no one had ever noticed it before. It was only with improvements in remote-sensing technology that they were able to detect the structure beneath the surface of the ground. Pottery fragments found in the region permitted the archaeologists to date the platform to the mid-second century BCE, which marked the early years of Petra’s influence. As to the purpose of the platform, for now, nobody knows. In interviews Parcak said that it likely functioned for public displays, perhaps religious or political in nature. Clearly it was difficult to build and constructed for large gatherings of people. The people who lived there in the second century were known for controlling trade routes; this discovery suggests that they had centralized religious of political structures. The previously excavated tombs and burial sites tell us a great deal about how they died, the platform augments our understanding of how they lived and ruled themselves.

Discovery of Petra by Europeans and Hollywood

Candida Moss wrote in the Daily Beast: It was only in 1812, when a wealthy 27-year-old Swiss explorer called Johann Ludwig Burckhardt learned Arabic, studied the Koran, and disguised himself as a Sheikh, that Petra was discovered. Burckhardt originally set off on his travels to look for the Niger River but he told his guide he wanted to sacrifice a goat at the tomb of Aaron, the brother of the biblical prophet Moses, and was led to the ruins of the “rose-red city.” He was unable to stay, out of fear that his real identity would be unmasked. So instead Burckhardt continued with his journey to Cairo, convinced that he had found Petra, and died five years later of dysentery. He never found the Niger. [Source: Candida Moss, Daily Beast, June 19, 2016]

In the two hundred years since Western explorers “rediscovered” Petra, the site has not failed to capture the attention of tourists and archeologists alike. With its stunning monastery carved out of the side of desert cliffs, the ancient city of Petra has inspired many a movie-maker. The site features in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, The Mummy Returns, and (of course) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, to name but a few. While Petra does not house the Holy Grail or the Tomb of the Primes (probably), new technology, and the fact that it was hidden for thousands of years, means that even today the site continues to offer up new revelations about the past.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons, The Louvre, The British Museum

Text Sources: Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Mesopotamia sourcebooks.fordham.edu , National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, especially Merle Severy, National Geographic, May 1991 and Marion Steinmann, Smithsonian, December 1988, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Discover magazine, Times of London, Natural History magazine, Archaeology magazine, The New Yorker, BBC, Encyclopædia Britannica, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Time, Newsweek, Wikipedia, Reuters, Associated Press, The Guardian, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, “World Religions” edited by Geoffrey Parrinder (Facts on File Publications, New York); “History of Warfare” by John Keegan (Vintage Books); “History of Art” by H.W. Janson Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.), Compton’s Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.

Last updated March 2024