2. PETRA
An ancient Nabataean city in western Jordan with massive facades carved
out of red sandstone
‘Petra’ is the Greek word for
‘rock’
Petra was probably Sela
(‘rock’) or Mount Seir in the
Old Testament
She was inhabited around
1200 BCE by the Edomites
who were known as Idumeans
in New Testament times
The Idumeans were later
displaced by the Nabataeans
whose greatest king was
Aretas IV (9 BCE to 40 CE)
3. The view from our room balcony at the Crowne Plaza Resort; it
overlooks the Petra mountains
4. 3 ways into Petra
1. Ride a horse 2. Ride a horse 3. Walk
carriage
5. A bilingual (Nabataean & Greek) inscription at the Bab as-Siq
(‘gate of the Siq’); it mentions burials made by Abdmanku for his
family (40-70 CE), probably referring to the adjacent Obelisk
Tomb
7. The dam on the left protected the entrance of the Siq from the floods
8. 2 rock-cut channels brought water from the Ain Musa
(‘spring of Moses’ or the place where Moses struck a rock
with his staff and water gushed out) into Petra; the channel
on the left was for non-drinking purposes
9. The channel on the right was for drinking and was lined with clay
pipes
10. The Siq
a 2-km passage into the city
the rocks on both sides could
rise up to 80 m high
the 2 water channels
continue all the way
into the city
11. Along the siq are betyls or These were representations of
imageless stone god-blocks Du Shara (‘god of the Shara
mountains’)
12. the water channel
on the left
A life-size carving of a man & his camel—signs of camel caravans
Petra was an important trading city for spices as she was located at the
intersection between the south-north trade route from Arabia & Egypt to the
Mediterranean ports, and the westward trade route from the Far East
13. After much walking, we caught
a glimpse of the Khaznat el-
Faroun (‘Treasury of the
Pharaoh’) glowing in the
morning sun
14. It was believed that Pharaoh
left his treasures in the urn at
the top of the façade
However, this was probably a
royal tomb than a treasury
This building was featured in
the movie, ‘Indiana Jones &
the Last Crusade
15. One of the rooms in the Treasury—probably a burial chamber
16. From here onwards, there are 3 modes of transport
1. Ride a donkey 2. Ride a camel
3. Walk
17. Bedouins used to live in these caves A well that still works
till the government resettled them in
the 1980s
18. The Bedouins agreed to move as
they were given the exclusive
right to sell souvenir products in
Petra
21. The Romans occupied Petra in 106 The decline of the city began with an
CE and began to build theatres, earthquake in 363 CE
temples, etc., rather than tombs
22. The Royal Tombs
The Urn Tomb The Silk Tomb
Key feature: urn Key feature: multi colours
This was used as a church
during the Byzantine times
23. Top:
The Palace Tomb
Key feature: look of a Hellenistic
palace
Left:
The Corinthian Tomb
Key feature: Corinthian capitals
24. The Treasury, looking rather
subdued at dusk
What we saw was only a few
tombs out of the 800 carved
tombs and about 15% of the
whole city
We walked a total of 8.4 km
By the end of the day, we were
literally covered from head to
toe with the sand of Petra
