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
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