PETRA PHOTO ALBUM

December 2008

‘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)

PETRAAn ancient Nabataean city in western Jordan with massive facades carved

out of red sandstone

The view from our room balcony at the Crowne Plaza Resort; it

overlooks the Petra mountains

3 ways into Petra

1. Ride a horse 2. Ride a horse

carriage

3. Walk

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

The Obelisk Tomb shows Egyptian, Greek, & Nabataean influences

The dam on the left protected the entrance of the Siq from the floods

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

The channel on the right was for drinking and was lined with clay

pipes

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

Along the siq are betyls or

imageless stone god-blocks

These were representations of

Du Shara (‘god of the Shara

mountains’)

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

the water channel

on the left

After much walking, we caught

a glimpse of the Khaznat el-

Faroun (‘Treasury of the

Pharaoh’) glowing in the

morning sun

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

One of the rooms in the Treasury—probably a burial chamber

1. Ride a donkey 2. Ride a camel

From here onwards, there are 3 modes of transport

3. Walk

Bedouins used to live in these caves

till the government resettled them in

the 1980s

A well that still works

The Bedouins agreed to move as

they were given the exclusive

right to sell souvenir products in

Petra

The sand bottle uses the colourful sand found in the caves

The Uneishu Tomb—the ‘steps’ or ‘stairs’ indicate Assyrian influence

The Romans occupied Petra in 106

CE and began to build theatres,

temples, etc., rather than tombs

The decline of the city began with an

earthquake in 363 CE

The Urn Tomb

Key feature: urn

This was used as a church

during the Byzantine times

The Silk Tomb

Key feature: multi colours

Th

e R

oyal

Tom

bs

Top:

The Palace Tomb

Key feature: look of a Hellenistic

palace

Left:

The Corinthian Tomb

Key feature: Corinthian capitals

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