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The jewel of South Jordan is Petra,
the unique, 2,000-year-old rock-carved city, the pink and salmon colored capital
of the Nabataean Arabs. Petra is always breath-taking, never to be forgotten. It
flourished for over 400 years around the time of Rome and Christ, until it was
occupied by the Roman legions of the emperor Trajan in 106 A.D. The Petra basin
boasts over 800 individual monuments that were mostly carved from the
kaleidoscopic sandstone by the technical and artistic genius of the Nabataeans.
The wealth and political power of this indigenous Arab people derived from their
control of the international trade routes that linked China, India and Southern
Arabia with the wealthy Mediterranean markets such as; Anatolia, Greece, Rome,
Egypt and Syria.
The drama of visiting Petra starts
with the journey, on horseback, horse-drawn carriage or foot, into the
mountain-ringed city along the siq, a winding, one kilometer long fissure
through the surrounding and overhanging cliffs. At the end of the siq, you
experience a thrill that is as dramatic today as it was two millennia ago:
suddenly, turning the corner and passing beneath two overhanging cliffs, you
come face-to-face with the Khasneh (The Treasury), the baroque Greek
temple-style royal tomb that is Petra's most famous and impressive monument. You
are totally engulfed by the magic and the beauty, but there is much more yet to
see.
From here, you penetrate deeper
and deeper into the 2,000-year-old city, surrounded everywhere by hundreds of
Petra's carved and built structures: soaring temples, elaborate royal tombs, a
carved Roman-style theatre, large and small houses, burial chambers and funerary
banqueting halls, water channels and reservoirs, baths, monumental staircases,
cultic installations, markets, arched gates, public buildings, paved streets,
and many other structures whose mystery is matched by their compelling and
enduring beauty. From the ancient city-centre, you set on dramatic walks and
climbs along winding mountain trails to some of Petra's more remote treasures,
such as; the monumental Ad Deir (The Monastery), an unfinished tomb for
a Nabataean, carved from a mountain-top high above the Petra basin. Ad Deir
overlooks cliffs that plunge nearly 1,500 meters to the west into the Wadi 'Araba,
the southern extension of the Dead Sea and the Jordan Rift Valley.
The High Place of Sacrifice,
perhaps the most complete and best preserved cultic altar and sacrificial
complex to be handed down to us from the biblical period. The processional way
to the High Place and back is embellished by a series of stately monuments and
cultic complexes, including temples, tombs, giant obelisks, altars, fountains
and forts.
Sabra, the southern Nabataean suburb
of Petra, with a small theatre and numerous collapsed temples and other
buildings is still reflecting the magnificence of its time.
Siq Al Barid, the capital's northern
suburb that is a miniature of Petra itself, complete with its own little siq,
temples, tombs and cultic installations, and which served as a meeting place for
the camel caravans that came to trade at Petra from the four corners of the
ancient world. It preserves a rare painted fresco from the Nabataean/ Classical
period.
Umm Al Biyara, the massive
mountain dominating the centre of Petra, whose summit housed a small village of
the Edomite people mentioned in the bible, before the Nabataeans moved in and
built a temple on this natural perch overlooking the whole of central Petra.
But Petra is not only about the
Nabataeans. The greater Petra region was inhabited by people throughout the full
sweep of human civilization. At Beidha, 15 minutes to the north, are the
excavated remains of an entire Stone Age village, from 6,500 BC-when humankind
was first making the transition from small bands of hunter-gatherers to settled
villagers who cultivated cereals and domesticated sheep and goat. The Edomite
village on Umm Al Biyara dates from 600-700 BC. Twenty minutes by car to the
east is the Roman legionary fortress at Udruh, which continued to be used in the
Byzantine and early Islamic eras. Though the Petra city-centre is dominated by
structures that reflect the glory days of Nabataean power, art and technology-
roughly between 300 BC and 100-150 AD - it also has many remains from the Roman
and Christian Byzantine civilizations that followed the heyday of Nabataean
glory. There are even two 12th Century AD Crusader castles at Petra itself,
making a visit to the Petra region a panoramic journey back into the last 9,000
years of human history, culture, religion, art and architecture. The small
museum within Petra, displaying artifacts excavated in the region, is the
perfect place to appreciate the advanced technical and artistic skills of the
Nabataeans and the other ancient peoples who inhabited the Petra basin.
Travelling north along the King's
Highway (mentioned in the Genesis accounts) you will encounter two
massive Crusader fortresses at Shobak and Kerak, or Nabataean temple complexes
at Khirbet ed-Dharieh or Khirbet Tannur. From Kerak, the modern road sweeps down
into the Dead Sea plain -- at 400 meters below sea level, the lowest spot on
earth--where there exist half a dozen walled towns from the biblical period,
sugar mills from the medieval Islamic era, and a string of Nabataean/ Roman
caravanserai.
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Steep reddish stone walls
protected the ancient city from would-be invaders until Roman Emperor
Trajan’s conquest in 106 B.C. For hundreds of years Petra’s wealth grew
from tolls collected from passing caravans and trading water and food
for spices and expensive fabrics. When the main trade routes shifted
farther south in the Roman period, Petra began a descent into economic
ruin.
Photograph by Peter Winkler
© 1998 National Geographic Society. All rights reserved.
This marble
basin, once sat before the church at Petra; 20 others were found nearby.
Photograph by Peter Winkler
© 1998 National Geographic Society. All rights reserved.
Modern heirs of the
Nabataean legacy, the Bedouin now occupy areas around Petra. Made of
goat or camel hair, a Bedouin tent—a beit sha'ar, or “house of
hair”—is designed to move with these nomadic people.
Photograph by Peter Winkler
© 1998 National Geographic Society. All rights reserved.
Palm leaves, grapes, and
pomegranates decorate this terra-cotta Nabataean bowl.
Photograph by Peter Winkler
© 1998 National Geographic Society. All rights reserved. |
