Highlights of Jordan | Petra
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Highlights of Jordan | Petra
Explore in the heart of the middle east.
Petra (“Rock”), situated between the and the , was once the capital of an ancient kingdom of the , that flourished during Greek and times, its impressive ruins and archaeological wonders located in what is now southwest . In 1985, it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site . The biblical scholar John William Burgon described it as a ” rose-red half as old as Time ” due to the pink hue of its and its historical significance. Some 2,000 years ago , the ” Rose “, was carved from , at the head of which is , or the Valley of Moses. The is according to tradition was where Moses struck a rock with his staff and water gushed forth into the desert. To this day, the Bedu or tribes , the settled and nomadic communities living near Petra and , continue to use the water-collecting cisterns and caves near this in the . is now a modern town that welcomes tourists from and in and other countries visiting the and archaeological site.
History of Petra
The were Arabian nomads from the Negev Desert (in what is now southern Israel) who amassed wealth from the incense trade, and built a kingdom that wielded political power from 168 BC until its annexation by the in 106 AD. They half-carved into the of , half-built their capital of Petra complete with the in a location that was not easily accessible and with no natural source of water. But the location of , served as an excellent position for the to monitor the Incense Routes and to be protected by the harsh desert. The Incense Route was a network of across the Negev Desert that conveyed merchants trading frankincense and myrrh from south Arabia to the port of Gaza in the Mediterranean from the 3rd century BC until the 2nd century AD. Several towns-Haluza, Mamshit, Avdat, and Shivta-dotted the desert along this route, serving as rest stops and trading hubs for merchants within the boundaries of the .
The ‘ success on these was rooted in their ingenuity in relation to water. They dug cisterns which filled with rainwater and sustained them on the , and in they built a sophisticated system of water transportation and conservation, taking advantage of the flash floods that occur in the area.
Decline, Rediscovery, and Excavation
The kingdom declined after annexation, coupled with the rise of the Syrian of Palmyra that attracted the merchant caravans. The of was damaged in an earthquake in 551, and the population fleeing from the disaster was replaced by an Islamic invasion in the 7th century, and Crusader fortresses, later abandoned, in the 12th century. Petra remained unknown, a , to the Western world until Swiss traveller Johann Ludwig Burckhardt described it in writing in 1812.
of the revealed the and the of the . As the ruins continue to be excavated, we continue to learn more about its towering buildings, inscriptions, and mosaics in this elaborate ancient capital in the , in . As National Geographic points out, Petra is four times the size of Manhattan -and it is simply impossible to explore every inch of it in a to .
The into Petra is the Bab Al- , Arabian for “door to the “, where you’ll find three massive monuments carved into the rock. Next to this is the Obelisk , and below the is the Bab Al- Triclinium, a banqueting hall with three chambers where in the , the would make a sacrifice to their dead through a feast.
The is the main road into the , which starts at the Dam and ends at the Treasury (Al Khazneh), two magnificent monuments. The Treasury , standing 40 metres high and topped with a funerary urn, is called as such, but it is still unclear what its original function was. It could have been a place of worship, a treasure trove, or an archive. Greek influence is evident in the Treasury’s facade, with its Corinthian capitals and friezes.
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