The Grand Canyon, Petra
The Monastery, Petra
Great Temple, Petra
Camels at Petra, 4 Mar 2014
The Theatre, Petra
Caves, Petra
Detail of pillar on the Treasury, Petra
The Treasury, Petra
Walking through the SIq, Petra
From our hotel to the Petra Visitors’ Centre was a five minute bus trip and at 8.00am with absolutely perfect weather we were all ready to start our day of visiting Petra and none of us would be anything but awe struck by the end of the day!
It is virtually impossible to describe in words what we’ve seen here in Petra in terms of architectural magnificence on the grandest of scales. Archaeologists agree that Petra ranks with the Pyramids of Egypt and Machu Picchu as amongst the most important archaeological treasures in the world. That said, it has now been made a World Heritage site and given the status of being one of the new Seven Wonders of the World.
Petra is more than two thousand years old with the city originally being the capital of the Nabataean Empire. There is also evidence of human settlement here and land use as long as ten thousand years ago.
In the first century BC Arab tribes from Yemen and nearby settled here in Southern Jordan and these people, the Nabataeans established themselves as the undisputed masters of the region’s trade routes, specialising in frankincense, myrrh, silk, ivory, animal hides and spices. At this time Petra was strategically placed at the crossroads of trade routes between the Mediterranean, India, China, Arabia and Africa.
Their success as traders was complemented by their advanced hydrological skills in collecting and controlling water flow throughout the city. Petra has numerous water channels, aqueducts, stone reservoirs and tunnels for the capture of water in this desert landscape.
Petra was later annexed to the Roman Empire and continued to thrive until changes to trade routes and some devastating earthquakes led to the downfall of the city which was eventually abandoned. By the 7th century AD Petra appears to have been largely deserted and then it was lost to all except local Bedouin from the area.
Then in 1812 the Swiss explorer Johannes Burckhardt (later to be a colleague of Joseph Banks) set out to rediscover this beautiful and ancient city. His discovery of Petra with help from the local Bedouins was of international significance and even then it began attracting visitors as it continues to do so today.
The Nabataeans used many outside cultural influences in the building of this fabulous city. The building architecture exhibits classical (Graeco-Roman), Egyptian and Mesopotamian styles with all fused into one unified form. Apart from normal living areas, the city was set out with paved roads, marbled surfaces on the sandstone buildings, agricultural terraces, aqueducts, temples, theatres, palaces, tombs and monasteries.
Our visit started with a gentle stroll heading from the visitors’ Centre westwards and our first major encounter with antiquity was the Obelisk Tomb and the Bab as-Siq Triclinium. The extraordinary thing about all the monuments seen is that they are carved out of the sandstone cliff walls, the size of the task being incomprehensibly vast! The sandstone is multicoloured but the dominant colour is rusty red indicating the presence of iron.
The path followed the as-Siq which is a natural water course cut through the rock which in places is 300m deep and yet only 3 or 4 metres wide. We walked along this narrow meandering pathway with huge jagged cliffs above us and then we turned a slight corner and came face to face with Al-Khazneh (The Treasury). This is an awesome sight to behold and was stunning in the early morning sun. Carved into the cliff-face ahead is the façade of a first century tomb 30m wide and 43m high. The Nabataean architectural style is blended with Hellenistic features such as 12 giant columns intricately decorated with Corinthian capitals featuring carved animal and human figures. The centre piece of the upper section is crowned with a large funerary urn which according to local legend conceals a pharaoh’s treasure! The Treasury is believed to be the mausoleum of the Nabataean King Aretas IV (9BC – 40AD). This mesmerising structure features prominently in the Indiana Jones movie “The Raiders of the Lost Ark”.
It’s impossible to relate information on everything we saw but after leaving the Treasury we passed down a section called the ‘Street of Facades’ and then the road widened and we came to The Theatre.
The Theatre is carved into the side of a mountain at the foot of the High Place of Sacrifice. The format is of Roman design with semi-circular seating sufficient to accommodate 4000 spectators!
Further on, high above us, carved into the side of the mountain on the other side of the Siq were the Royal Tombs. The whole scene was becoming a little too hard to comprehend; these sights were so magnificent, so old and yet in remarkably good order it was as if we were caught up in some extraordinary dream.
After passing down The Colonnaded Street and passing through the archway we came to the Great Temple. Nearby we stopped for a drink and a bite to eat and to take stock of all the things we’d encountered during the last few hours.
After lunch we climbed the 800+ steps to Ad-Dayr or The Monastery. This is one of the largest monuments in Petra measuring 47m wide by 51m high and it dates to the early 2nd century AD. It’s somewhat like The Treasury in basic architectural style but the bas-reliefs are less detailed and the columns have plainer decorative designs.
We ventured further afield to three look-out points to absorb the visual feast that lay below us; we were struggling to reconcile our minds with this unbelievable spectre. It was a true mental overload.
Our return journey, some nine hours later involved the 5.8km walk back through all the monuments we’d discovered earlier in the day.
Even seeing things again for the second time made it hard to comprehend the marvel that is Petra.
Memories flooded back of a poem we’d learnt at school which at the time meant nothing to us at all. The poem by Dean Burgon (?) had the lines…”match me such a marvel save in Eastern clime/ A rose-red city half as old as time….” We had no idea that this of course was a reference to Petra, the rose-red city!
Certainly this was a day that will never be forgotten; truly a wondrous opportunity to see such a place!!