a sane voice in a mad, mad world: Petra

Thursday, February 26, 2009

world heritage tour: Petra

Here is Petra on the world heritage site. The panoramic photos are awesome.

Petra: interactive map

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Petra Jordan (a video tour) part 2

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Petra Jordan (a video tour) part 1

Friday, September 7, 2007

before visiting Petra, read this!

jordanjubilee.com

thorntree.lonelyplanet.com forum

Water at Petra

Petra: Dam and sluice gate

Petra, water channel

Petra Water Works: Nabatea.net

above article in full: journals.cambridge.org

Water in the Nabataean Period: muheisenz.homestead.com/WTNP.html

Magnificent Petra

Reconstructing Petra

Thursday, September 7, 2006

Philip C. Hammond's article on Petra: Myth and Reality"

When Harrison Ford finally found the Holy Grail inside the Khaznat al-Faron at Petra, at the climax of the film Indiana Jones and the last Crusade, a new myth was born. But Ford, and his scriptwriters, were only following in a long line of people who have contributed to the myths, misinformation and confusion surrounding the fabeled "rose-red city" of Petra - not only since its rediscovery in 1812 but as far back as the Middle Ages.

The list of misconceptions with which Petra has been plagued over the centuries is almost overwhelming. Most are harmless errors in names, dates, attributions and the like, but, taken as a whole, they detract greatly from the reality of this important scenic and archeological site.

Since Indiana Jones had to reach his goal via the Shiq, the two-kilometer (2200- yard) chasm leading into Petra, perhaps that is a good place to begin a demythologizing tour of the site. The Shiq is a great cleft in the earth, formed in the hazy depths of the geological past by the same earthquake activity that has plagued the area ever since. Its narrow, winding route through the lofty cliffs which protect the site on the east remains one of the great experiences for the visitor today, and is probably responsible for the belief that it was here that Moses struck the rock to secure water for his wandering people after the flight from Egypt - the first of the Moses-linked stories now associated with the whole Petra Basin. The wadi (valley) that bisects the ancient city center was dutifully dubbed Wadi Musa (Valley of Moses), a name first encountered in the records of the Crusaders.

The Crusader leader Baldwin, just before he became king of the Latin Kingdom in AD 1100, was summoned to Petra by "the monks of Saint Aaron," those records show, who claimed they were being harassed by "the Saracens." After rescuing the monks, Baldwin returned to Jerusalem to be crowned and to rethink Crusader strategy in his new kingdom. He soon discovered that there were no fortified points south of "The Castle of Saint Abraham" at Hebron, and he hastened to mend that deficiency. Along with the fortresses still standing today at Kerak, Sho- bak, Tafilah and elsewhere in Jordan, a fortress was erected in the "Valley of Moses" and the legend of Moses' visit to Petra was thus given official recognition. Obviously, the monks of Saint Aaron had much to do with this whole affair, the better to establish their right to demand Crusader protection.

Little deceits can get out of hand, however, and soon other signs of Moses' visit appear at the site. The Khaznat al- Faroun, where Indiana Jones made his great discovery in the 1989 film, is another victim of the early monks' tales. Khaznat al-Faroun means "the Treasury of the Pharaoh"- and a myth goes with the name: The Pharaoh of Exodus, having mobilized his forces to recapture the fleeing Hebrews, had reached Petra - after his slight embarrassment at the Red Sea. But by then the weight of his treasury, thoughtfully carried along, had begun to slow the progress of his army. As a result, the story goes, the Khaznat al-Faroun was created, by magic, and the Pharaoh's wealth deposited in the urn-like decoration on its top. One can still see the pockmarks of Bedouin bullets, fired at the "urn" in the vain hope that Pharaoh's gold would come tumbling down !

In reality, the Treasury is a Nabatean tomb, probably royal, possibly even that of the famous King Aretas IV, Petra's most enthusiastic architectural developer. The almost 40-meter-high (131-foot) facade, hewn out of the living rock of the cliff which faces the city side of the Shiq, is only one of more than 800 carved monuments attributed to the Nabateans during their occupation of the site, from sometime before the third century BC to the late fourth century of our era. Inside the massive doorway, the tomb chamber lacks the decor found by Indiana Jones - there are no Crusader statues, huge stone lions or inset seals in the floor- and represents instead the typical, rather plain interior design of Petra's funerary monuments. It is, of course, the facade itself, one of the finest examples of Nabatean carving, which even after some two millennia still awes the beholder who enters its forecourt from the winding Shiq.

Somewhat later in Petra's history, probably also at the hands of Crusaders or monks, another splendid royal tomb, situated high on a mountain top, was refurished for religious use and received the name ad-Dair, the Monastery. Originally neither a church nor a monastery, the tomb is today one of the site's main tourist attractions, with the connotations of its fictious name still firmly fixed.

Other tombs have likewise been given gratuitous names, even if no grand legends are attached. For example, the ones which span part of the western face of the mountain, Jabal al-Kubthah, through which the Shiq meanders, are known today as the Royal Tomb Group, with each tomb facade possessing a rather fanciful title - Three-Storied, Silk, Corinthian, Hall of Justice. Since only one of Petra's tombs has any inscription on its facade at all, inventing popular names for the more impressive ones has become a tradition for map-makers and tourist guides. Probably, in the course of time, each tomb will also achieve a story to go along with its name. This is, of course, relatively harmless myth-making - as long as listeners don't take the matter too literally or too seriously.

But tombs are not the only monuments at Petra which have acquired names and legends. The few standing ruins on the site which escaped total destruction during the devastating earthquake of May 19, 363 - along with many no longer standing - were, and still are, fair game for the same treatment.

The great masonry-built temple to the Nabateans' chief male deity, Dhushares, is a prime example. Awed by the size of the building, myth-makers again invoked the magic of the Pharaoh, and to this day the building bears the name Qasr Bint al- Faroun, the Palace of Pharaoh's Daughter. Here, again, the excess baggage of the pursuing monarch was at issue; this time, however, it was his daughter who was slowing him down. Therefore, the Qasr had to be built in which to park the young lady against later recovery, after her daddy caught up with Moses.

Even a solitary column, left standing after the earthquake's ravages, has been linked to the Pharaoh's fictitious visit to the site: it has been given a rather obscene name that has remained something of an embarrassment to guide-book publishers, who never translate the Arabic.

The temple that this author has been excavating since 1974, probably dedicated to 'Allat, the Nabateans' supreme goddess, has fallen into the name trap as well. Because of feline decorations on the capitals around the altar platform, the "Temple of the Winged Lions" now occupies a prominent place in the clouded annals of Petra, and poor 'Allat is left out of the picture completely.

Less devastating to the innocence of tourists, but absolutely horrifying to scholars, has been the myth-making of map- makers, right up to the present day. The first of the modern cartographers was the self-proclaimed rediscoverer of Petra, Swiss adventurer-scholar Johann Ludwig Burckhardt (See Aramco World, September-October 1967). On August 22, 1812, Burckhardt, traveling in disguise, persuaded the Bedouin inhabitants of the small settlement of El-Ji (now Wadi Musa), just outside Petra, to guide him to a local mountain called Jabal Haroun, after Aaron, the brother of Moses. He passed through the Shig and into the ancient site, as far as the foot of the mountain, beyond which his now-suspicious guides would not take him. Having duly sacrificed a goat to the memory of Aaron, Burckhardt hurriedly left the area, but observed enough around him to produce a map - and the notation in his journal that he had rediscovered Petra.

In reality, Petra was never actually lost, although it had been somewhat misplaced since the days of the early Islamic geographers - who had visited the site but were not particularly concerned about its name - and its appearance on the famous Peutinger Table, a 12th-century copy of a map of Roman-period trade and population centers. As late as 1778, Volume II of The Works of Flavius Josephus, produced in London by Fielding and Walker, included a map based upon the Onomasticon of Eusebius, which accurately located Petra from the ancient distances recorded in the latter work. But as far as the Western world was concerned, those earlier records of Petra's location became irrelevant as people read and appreciated Burckhardt's adventures.

Burckhardt's map, however, raised new problems relating to the topography and place names of the site. In his rapid overview of the area, Burckhardt picked out certain major landmarks - the Khaznat al- Faroun, the Theater, the Qasr and others - but his memory of their locations was only relative and the names he used to identify them - for example, "Kasr Faroun" for Khaznat al-Faroun - were somewhat confused. However, he opened the way for other intrepid travelers. More accurate topography and locations were established, and monuments and other features began to receive new names.

Burckhardt's map, however, raised new problems relating to the topography and place names of the site. In his rapid overview of the area, Burckhardt picked out certain major landmarks - the Khaznat al- Faroun, the Theater, the Qasr and others - but his memory of their locations was only relative and the names he used to identify them - for example, "Kasr Faroun" for Khaznat al-Faroun - were somewhat confused. However, he opened the way for other intrepid travelers. More accurate topography and locations were established, and monuments and other features began to receive new names.
The first truly scientific study of the site, and quite a definitive one, was done by R.E. Brunnow and Alfred von Domaszewski in 1897-98. Maps, sketches, photographs and architectural analysis of the monument types were augmented by same-language references to the reports of all previous travelers to the site. As a consequence, the names given to features up to that time became frozen in the literature, subject only to later attempts to modify them in the present century and the addition of new names for newly discovered spots.

One of the great miscarriages of map- making, still found in guide-books and modern literature, was the "plan" of the ancient city drawn by the eminent German scholar A. Wiegand for Bachman's volume on the site published in 1921. Wiegand examined the evidence of fallen wall lines in some detail and proceeded to outline what he thought were sub-surface buildings, and even to identify their functions. Some modern writers still display Wiegand's plan as a real picture of a city still buried beneath the sand !

Fortunately, with the beginning of archeological work at Petra, modern aerial and photogrammetric surveys have laid out the site with precision. The latest map, produced by the Jordanian government, finally gives the visitor a reliable picture of the site, the actual nature of some of its remains, and the location of its principal monuments.

As more fact was gradually sifted from fancy, myth-making at Petra had to turn to other aspects of the site, and the architecture of Nabatean tomb facades and other visible ruins presented an appealing field.

Brunnow and von Domaszewski were really the first scholars to attempt a classification of Petra's architecture, and their descriptive approach opened the way for a series of later classifications that used different criteria and different dating methods. Unfortunately, until modern archeological work was done on the site, all of these largely lacked a firm basis. Very recent architectural analyses, along with information from excavations, seem to give us more reasonable information about Nabatean architectural style, origins, and dates. Likewise, experts' views on the origin of what is called the "Naba- tean Order" in architecture have changed. Scholars now recognize that most of the Near East was flooded with Hellenistic architectural and artistic craftsmanship before a distinctive Nabatean style developed, and that the Nabateans also had a penchant for borrowing ideas as they traded throughout the Roman world. The result of these two factors was a characteristically eclectic mix of tastes.

It was this question of outside influences on Nabatean architecture that allowed for the most extensive myth- making. Initial discussion of foreign influences in the Nabatean architectural orders - such as "Assyrian" crow-step decoration, "Egyptian" moldings, "Roman" canons, and so on - led to suggestions that outsiders had not only influenced architectural style, but had in fact built the monuments as well. Remnants of Western colonial bias strengthened the claim that it was only after the conquest of Arabia by the Romans that certain of Petra's more elaborate monuments could have been created. However, the subsequent excavation of the Main Theater clearly demonstrated original Nabatean construction. Since then, the bias against Nabatean originality and artistry has largely evaporated, and the creative abilities of this early Arab people are being recognized and appreciated more widely.

The city of Petra itself has become still another source of broad-gauge myth- making, much of which can be traced back to one Reverend George Robinson. Beginning with his publication of The Sepulcher of an Ancient Civilization in 1930, a multitude of uninformed authors, including some who had never seen the site and lacked any previous experience in Middle Eastern archeology and culture, have proclaimed that Petra was always a "dead city" - a city without a population. The degree of supposed deadness varies from one author to another, depending upon the particular degree of ignorance involved: Some vitality is grudgingly permitted by those who see Petra as an ancient ceremonial or administrative center, but even in those cases no major population is acknowledged as having been present.

The tendency to view Petra as a mausoleum on a grand scale has even reached into official circles, thanks in large part to a survey conducted some years ago by a former us Park Service employee, who even found the Bedouin then living at Petra detrimental to the desired funereal atmosphere.

Yet if one climbs even a small hill near the site and looks down, the extent of the ruins would suggest quite another viewpoint. A city of the dead hardly needed the expanse of recognizable business district along the Paved Street, nor an impressive public theater, nor baths, nor the two major temples now brought to light, nor a magnificently laid-out hydraulic system piping in water from miles away, nor the multitude of cisterns to capture rainwater - not to mention the remains of villas and other living quarters whose floor plans dot the basin.

Certain ancient sources, it is true, suggest a non-urban situation at Petra. The historian Diodorus of Sicily, writing in the first century BC, gives us the earliest authentic description of Nabatean Petra. Relying on first-hand accounts of the late fourth century BC, he describes a non- sedentary, non-agricultural "barbarian" people who harry their neighbors and who have chosen to dwell at Petra in order to live a wild and solitary life. A few scholars, commenting on Diodorus's account, have suggested that he was, indeed, describing Nabatean life at Petra - but life as it was in the late fourth century, some three hundred years before his own time. Too few other commentators have appreciated the time gap between the description and the report of it, and have sought to characterize Nabatean life at Petra in Diodorus's terms. Yet Strabo,writing at about the same time as Diodorus, gives a much different picture. Drawing on an account from a living informant born in Petra, Strabo describes the city as governed by a royal family, abundant in resources, and bustling with a cosmopolitan population. Based on today's archeological evidence, the latter portrayal of both people and city is accurate. Still further, the Nabatean origin of Petra's technology and public works can no longer be denied.

Indeed, after Rome's annexation of Nabatea in AD 106, it was not long before the city was recognized as a metropolis in the official sense, a title not bestowed by the Roman Senate on "dead" cities.

Most of the ancient sources left one question begging in their descriptions of the Nabateans: the origin of the people themselves. Although Diodorus does casually place Nabatean villages in the area of the modern Gulf of Aqaba, he neglects to say whether this was an original homeland or simply an extension of the Nabatean kingdom from Petra at a later time. Numerous studies have been undertaken in an attempt to solve the problem, and the bulk of evidence, it would seem, places the homeland of the Nabateans somewhere in modern Saudi Arabia, from which they migrated along the coast, finally settling at Petra.

A recent study by this writer suggests another overlooked possibility. From hints dropped in the contemporary literature, from the strange migration of the indigenous Edomites at Petra to the west - where they became known as Idumeans - and from the question of the origin of the rather advanced technologies displayed in Nabatean art, metallurgy, hydraulics, architecture and other fields, it is possible to recognize in the later Nabatean culture a remarkable blending of two early Arab peoples - the long-sedentary Edomites and the vigorous, mercantile, caravaneering Nabateans. The synthesis of the two resulted in one people with a combined strength in both technology and trade, with the more vigorous Nabateans providing the final national name for the blend. Those Edomites discontented with the new scheme simply migrated to a new home and received a Hellenistic version of their original Semitic name in later literature. By the time of Diodorus's first- century-BC report, the symbiosis had been forgotten.

There is one final myth about Petra that should be mentioned, especially after Indiana Jones' recent visit: the nature of the real archeological fieldwork involved.

The drama of Indy's triumphant dash to the Khaznat al-Faroun, the romance of a "lost city" of magnificent stone monuments, the promise of stupendous discoveries in the next trowelfull of earth all obscure the everyday grind of the archeologist's labor - the price of the knowledge that he or she uncovers about an ancient culture, its nature, its development and the processes that brought it into being.

There is romance, of course: Anyone who has ever visited Petra has felt the site's dramatic pull upon the senses. Yet there is also the drudgery, dust and frustration that accompany excavation - and disappointment, too. Petra does not reward the archeologist with treasure in the commonly accepted sense. Rather, there is a daily mass of broken pottery, corroded coins, mutilated architectural debris, unknowable fragments and the constant knowledge that each season of work is only a pitiful drop in the bucket of research that really needs to be done in Petra and surrounding sites.

Yet there do come, now and again, complete vessels, readable coins, bits of inscriptions, decorated fragments, architectural surprises and the other finds that delight the hearts of dedicated excavators. These discoveries, along with the other material remains and the intricacies of the depositional strata of occupation - not the imaginative legends - are what really tell the story of Petra and her people. They are the building blocks for reconstructing the culture of a people, for understanding their history and its chronology, and for seeking out the processes that made them what they were. They are what make the people and the city, the rose-red city of Petra, come alive once again.

A DAY AT THE DIG
What is a day of digging really like at Petra?
This writer has directed archeological excavations at the Temple of the Winged Lions for the past 15 years, with earlier periods along the city wall and at the Main Theater. The daily routine is part of a life quite different from that of Indiana Jones. More than 200 Arab, American, European and Japanese students have shared that experience at Petra, and helped bring back to life the people of ancient Nabatea.
Morning begins at the grim hour of 4:30 a.m., generally to the sound of the director's tape-recorded bagpipe music, thoughtfully supplied by a colleague at the university. Breakfast is at five a.m. - provided the propane cylinder isn't empty, the cook hasn't overslept and the water supply hasn't broken down - with porridge as a main menu item. Site crews and lab crews are at work by six, with the expedition's student participants rotated on a weekly basis through the various jobs that make up archeology today: supervising (and doing!) the actual digging, surveying, processing the material remains recovered in excavation and recording the results by making drawings, taking photographs, and filling out endless forms. Break time comes at 10 a.m. - a half hour of sardines, bread, jam, tea and just plain rest. Then more work until one p.m., when activity on the site stops for the day and lunch follows.

The menu depends on the supplies currently available in the market at Wadi Musa, and tends to feature rice in great abundance. After lunch, people read, sleep or go for a swim in the small pool in Wadi Siyagha - or make the 40-minute trek to the "real" pool at our neighborhood four-star hotel. "Pottery mat" takes place at six p.m., when the sherds and other artifacts of the previous day are examined, discussed and sampled for later drawing. Dinner is at seven - with more rice. At eight, the on-site crews gather at the "Daily Progress Chart" on the wall of the old Nazzal's Camp, the dig headquarters, and work up the stratigraphic results of the day's excavations.

While all this is going on, the field laboratory is busy processing each day's recovered artifacts for registration and interpretation. Pottery sherds are washed, sorted and photographed; bones are identified; stone and plaster are brushed off; metals are cleaned; and the records begin to mount up. Records are the life-blood of a dig, for archeological excavation is destructive, and the only way a site's history can be reconstructed is from whatever is recorded - notes taken during excavation on-site, notes taken in the lab, sherd drawings, photographs, and a host of other records, including actual material samples.

Such is the routine five days a week, for the six to eight weeks of an archeological season. Fridays are days off, for trips around the Petra Basin and similar exhausting recreational activities. Saturdays are devoted to drawing pottery sherds -1065 of them last season - for dating and comparison with published examples from other sites in the Middle East.

But it's not all work, either. Thirty-five years of contact with the Bedouins at Petra open the way for invitations to mansafs - traditional feasts at which roast goat is usually served - weddings, dances and all sorts of other local events. Dart games, card games, music, reading and occasional birthday and un-birthday parties round out the days. People get to know each other through conversation, in camp or at Petra's "general store." An R&R trip to the beaches of Aqaba relieves the monotony at mid-season, with an occasional need for recuperation after the visit.

Myths aside - though we have our own myths and legends as well - such is the reality of archeology at Petra.

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WRITTEN BY PHILIP C. HAMMOND
PHOTOGRAPHED BY VIVIAN RONAY

(From the ARAMCO WORLD MAGAZINE, September-October 1991)

Philip C. Hammond, professor of anthropology at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, is director of the American Expedition to Petra. This is his second article for Aramco World.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saudi Aramco, the oil company born as a bold international enterprise more than half a century ago, distributes Aramco World to increase cross-cultural understanding. The magazine's goal is to broaden knowledge of the Arab and Muslim worlds and the history, geography and economy of Saudi Arabia. Aramco World is distributed without charge, upon request, to a limited number of interested readers.
Address editorial correspondence to: The Editor, Aramco World, Post Office Box 2106, Houston, Texas 77252-2106, USA. Send subscription requests and changes of address to: Aramco World, Box 469008, Escondido, California 92046-9008, USA.

al@mashriq

970213/20010905/BL

Wednesday, September 6, 2006

Petra Wadi

____________

Tuesday, June 7, 2005

Petra- II

Eyewall

The Shiq

The Treasury as we near the exit of the Shiq

The Treasury

The treasury - large

Nabatean Stairs

Royal Tombs

Royal Tombs seen from the Top

Urn Tomb

The tomb of Sextius

Petra-07

Palace Tomb

Garden Tomb

Nabateans (Nabatu) نبط ; Petra, بطرا

The Amazing Ancients

A good website for ancient ruins:
muslimdotorg

a little (nay, a gold mine) on Nabateans:

The Nabateans
Click on what interests you, e.g. Petra

a more comprehensive index of the same site:
Subject Index to Nabataea.net

nabataea.net regards the ruins of Petra, Madaine Sualeh and Ubar as those of a single civilisation or people. These could easily be slightly different peoples of Ashabul Hijr, Thamud and Aad. However, the above site is a mine of information and pictures.

google search Nabateans

Petra:
A walk around Petra - with enlargeable thumbnails

The complete Petra

Mansour Mousher's phto galleries - very comprehensive

world66-petra

trekearth

murrayc_2001 - Petra

Petra by Satellite

Petra - brown.edu

brown.edu petra pics index

2002-excavations

Petra - angus

Gallery - Petra 3

studium biblicum franciscum

The complete Petra links

comprehensive Petra pictures (334)

nationalgeographic.com

the small & dangerous shiq
Al Beidha: Little Petra, shiq & all

upenn.edu
kinghussein.gov.jo/tourism6d
ce.eng.usf.edu-forgotten wonder
galenfrysinger.com/petra

Maps & pictures of Petra:

map with surroundings of Petra

Satellite image of Petra with Amphitheatre at centre

Large Satellite Image of Petra

Map of Central Petra

Petra Visit

Here you can see a "picture map" of Petra. The Khazaneh (the Treasury) is exactly in the middle, with the entrance to the right, still on the bottom of the map. The Obelisk Tomb and the Djinn blocks are marked.

The path continues through the Outer Shiq towards the theatre, with the Urn Tomb and the Royal Tombs to the right, and the temples and the "Paved Road" in the centre of the ancient city. The "Monastery" is high up to the left.

The tombs lower to the left are the complex around "the tomb of Sextus Florentinus" and you can see the "High Place" between them and the Khazneh.

Warning : from the Obelisk Tomb to the Monastery is something around 8kms, more if you take in the High Place and/or the Royal Tombs and the Great Temple on the way!

This "guided visit" is the work of Jean Claude Golvin

Many influences are apparent in the architecture of Petra; Assyrian, Egyptian, Hellenistic and Roman. Most of the visible remains date from the Roman period, yet somehow bear a unique Nabataean stamp. It is mostly the rock-cut tombs which remain today, though freestanding temples built of stone, the Qasr Al-Bint Temple and the Temple of the Winged Lions can also be seen.

· 1 Djin Blocks
· 2 Obelisk Tomb
· 3 Al-Siq
· 4 The Treasury
· 5 Street of Facades
· 6 The Theater
· 7 Aneisho Tomb
· 8 Urn Tomb
· 9 Silk Tomb
· 10 Corinthian Tomb
· 11 Palace Tomb
· 12 Sextus Florentinus Tomb
· 13 House of Dorotheos
· 14 The Nymphaeum
· 15 Colonnaded Street
· 16 Byzantine Church
· 17 Winged Lion Temple
· 18 The Arched Gate
· 19 Qasr Al-Bint

actually, what has been termed as The Great Temple is missing on this map. It is larger than Qasr al-Bint

· 20 Unfinished Tomb
· 21 Al-Habees Museum
· 22 Petra Archeological Museum
· 23 Lion Triclinium
· 24 Al-Deir
· 25 Turkmanian Tomb
· 26 Conway Tower
· 27 Moghar Annassara
· 28 High Palace of Sacrifice
· 29 Lion Monument
· 30 Garden Temple Complex
· 31 Triclinium
· 32 Renaissance Tomb
· 33 Broken Pediment Tomb
· 34 Roman Soldier Tomb
· 35 Snake Monument
· 36 Crusader Fort

The Bab Al-Shiq Area
As one makes one's way through the gorge, on horseback or on foot, to the entrance of Al-Siq or narrow defile, the first monuments one sees are three massive Djin blocks. There are about 40 such monuments to be found in Petra. Their significance is as yet uncertain. They are generally thought to have been an early form of Nabataean tomb, though their proximity to running water may signify that they were related to the worship of water, bearer of fertility.

Opposite the Djin blocks are two monuments, the Obelisk Tomb and the Bab Al-Siq Triclinium, which stands below it. Although they are found in close proximity to one another, they appear to be unrelated, dating from various periods and standing on a slightly different axis. The Obelisk Tomb takes its name from the four Obelisks which decorate its upper storey.

The Obelisk was a common Nabataean funerary symbol and clearly demonstrates Egyptian influence. An inscription in both Greek and Nabataean to be found opposite it, refers to a family tomb built by Abdmank which may well be the Obelisk tomb itself.

The Bab Al-Siq Triclinium, constructed at a later date and more classical in style, is the first of approximately 100 similar monuments to be found throughout the site. These were rock-carved rooms with benches running around three sides of their interior, situated near tombs, so as to act as dining rooms for the funerary banquets which appear to have been an essential ritual in burying and commemorating the dead.

There are many large tombs in the Outer Siq, some of them bearing obvious traces of earthquake damage. The Tomb of the 17 Graves clearly demonstrates how the graves were cut into the rock floor. Also noteworthy are the five small commemorative Obelisks and two Nabataean inscriptions carved onto the walls.

As the Outer Siq opens out, the Street of Facades becomes visible. Whole streets, 4 rows, one above the other, of Assyrian type monuments with double bands of crow-step decoration run along the cliff face. It isn't known whether these served as houses or tombs but they appear to be of an early date.

Beyond the Street of Facades lies the Theater, which was constructed in the early 1st century AD by Nabataeans and enlarged and improved by the Romans shortly after their annexation of the Kingdom in 106 AD. This they did by ruthlessly gouging away a street of houses or tombs in order to extend the rear of the auditorium, which could then accommodate 3000 people.

This also improved the acoustics of the theater and supported a drain, which took the run-off water around the sides of the theater. The standard Roman-design theater today lies open to the Outer Siq, but would originally have been enclosed by a wall and completely cut off from the street.

The Treasury
"A beam of stronger light breaks in at the close of the dark perspective, and opens to view, half seen at first through the tall narrow opening, columns, statues, and cornices of a light and finished taste, as if fresh from the chisel, without the tints or weather stains of age, and executed in a stone of a pale rose color, which was warmed at the moment we came in sight of them with full light of the morning sun".

Little has changed the Treasury since the Hon. Charles Irby and Mr. James Mangles, commanders in the British Royal Navy, described their first sight of it in 1818. "We do not know with what to compare this scene", they added; "perhaps there is nothing in the world that resembles it".

It is justly the most famous monument in Petra, perhaps from the impact of the first glimpse of that luminous strip at the end of the towering penumbra of the Siq.

Suddenly we emerge into a natural courtyard face to face with the glowing perfection of the Treasury. Its elaborately carved facade is alive with a cast of Nabataean deities and mythological characters - equestrian figures of the Dioscuri (Castor and Pollux) whose role in the Greek myths was to guide the souls of the dead to the Elysian Fields; dancing Amazons wielding axes; winged Victories; Medusa heads; eagles and various mythical creatures. All are funerary symbols.

At the center of the tholos - the round section between the broken pediment at the top of the facade - is the eroded relief figure of a goddess holding a cornucopia in her left arm. This has been identified as Al-Uzza, the great goddess of Petra, who was commonly assimilated with the Greek Aphrodite, goddess of love; here she includes the attributes of Tyche, the Greek goddess of fortune, and of Isis, the supreme goddess of the Egyptian pantheon who, as the wife of Osiris, also presided over the underworld and the spirits of the dead.

Though all the figures are eroded, the flowers, leaves and fruits on the friezes, pediment and capitals still look, miraculously, almost as crisp as the day they were carved.

In Arabic the Treasury is called El-Khazneh, or Khaznet Far'oun, Pharaoh's Treasury, from an ancient myth that treasure had been concealed here by a powerful black magician, popularly identified with a wicked and fabulously wealthy Pharaoh: who else but he who proceeded the Pharaoh who drove prophet Moses (pbuh) and his followers out of Egypt and chased them here to Petra?! At this point, it seems, the Pharonic treasure had become an impediment.

Not this monument alone, but the whole of Petra, was believed to be a storehouse of Pharaoh's wealth, deposited here by deep magic; but this, the most sumptuous monument, must surely have housed his greatest riches. The urn at the top was deemed the most likely repository, and every Bedouin who owned a gun would take a shot at it as he passed, in the vivid hope that if he hit the right spot all the treasures of Pharaoh would cascade down upon him. The result is a sadly battered urn and not a whiff of treasure.

So ferociously did the Bedouin of the 19th century believe in the existence of treasure, and in magical powers, that they suspected all western travelers of being magicians who had come to spirit away the hidden wealth out of reach of themselves, the rightful heirs and owners.

"Nor are they satisfied with watching the stranger's steps", as Burckhardt wrote in 1812: "They believe that it is sufficient for a true magician to have seen and observed the spot where the treasures are bidden... in order to be able afterwards, at his ease, to command the guardian of the treasure to set the whole before him".

Small wonder that those early visitors were given such an unwelcoming reception.

The Treasury's original purpose remains elusive - except that it was not a Treasury. Some scholars believe it was a royal tomb, with the king's burial place in the small chamber at the back; others, a temple, pointing to its temple-like facade and the lack of burial holes - for them the rear chamber was the sanctuary, complete with ritual ablution basin.

Yet others suggest it was a memorial mausoleum, perhaps for the cult of the deified Obodas I. The funerary symbolism of the carvings on the facade certainly points to some association with the dead.

Yet another view is that this was a library. See nabatea.net for this.

The date of the Treasury is also unclear, and has to be assessed on stylistic grounds, providing yet more theories. It is tempting to suppose that its ornate carving points to a later period, but Petra has proved a graveyard for such neat solutions.

Some scholars suggest around 25 AD, under Aretas IV who initiated much construction and urban planning, and who may have brought craftsmen from Alexandria. The consensus now favors the reign of Aretas III Philhellene (86-62 BC), a time of great expansion and exposure to Hellenistic ideas.

Whenever it was carved, and for whichever Nabataean king, Hellenistic ideas were here brilliantly transformed into a design that kept a distinctively Nabataean flavor. And whatever its purpose, the sitting of the Treasury at the end of the forbidding twilight of Al-Siq was clearly designed to strike wonder into all who entered the Nabataean capital.

The Royal Tombs
From the theater a stairway leads to the Royal Tombs set into the rock-face of the Jabal Al-Khubtha. These tombs, thought to be those of several Nabataean kings, are certainly amongst the most impressive of the 500 tombs to be found in Petra.

The Urn Tomb was probably constructed around 70 AD. It is preceded by a deep courtyard with colonnades on two sides. High up in the facade there are 3 niches which give on to small burial chambers. Their inaccessibility would have made them relatively safe from tomb robbers.

Inside there is a massive single chamber which may originally have served as a triclinium for funerary banquets, but which was adapted in 446 AD to serve as a Byzantine church, the vaults of which can still be seen below the tombs.

The small Silk Tomb is remarkable for the swirls of different colored rock which make up its facade. Then comes the Corinthian Tomb, which combines various elements of both the Nabataean and the classical architectural styles. Next to it is the broad, 3-storey high Palace Tomb, interesting in that its lower part was cut from the rock, while some of its upper storey was constructed with masonry when the cliff itself proved to be too low.

En route to the Sextus Florentinus Tomb, it is worth noting the large rock-carved cistern which served the city by storing water piped from another huge cistern near the modern Petra Forum hotel, a considerable distance away.

The Sextus Florentinus Tomb, constructed in 130 AD, is one of the few tombs which can be accurately dated. Over the doorway a Latin inscription informs us it was constructed for Sextus, Roman Governor of the Province of Arabia, by his son at his father's specific request.

It too combines Nabataean and Roman elements, although unfortunately it has been badly eroded. It is interesting that this high-ranking Roman official should have wanted a rock-cut tomb in typically Nabataean style.

The City Center
The first thing to be seen in the city center is the remains of the Nymphaeum, standing in the shade of a tree. Very little is left, but one can imagine from similar monuments elsewhere (the Nymphaeum in Jerash, for example) what this public fountain, with plays of water to delight both the ear and the eye, would have looked like.

It was situated at the confluence of two watercourses, dedicated to the water nymphs and was probably one of the improvements made to the city after the Roman annexation.

A short way beyond the Nymphaeum, the Colonnaded Street begins. Only a short stretch remains of the 6 meter wide paved road, which also seems to have been constructed shortly after the Roman annexation of Petra to replace an earlier Nabataean track.

We should imagine the street as running through an important commercial section of the town, with shady porticoes on each side. The hillsides on both sides of the street would at the time have been covered with buildings serving a variety of purposes. The Colonnaded street led past the Temple of the Winged Lions on the northern bank of the stream, which was crossed at that point by a bridge over the wadi (valley).

The temple is at present under excavation, but it has already been established that it was built around 27 AD and was probably dedicated to the main Nabataean Goddess Al-Uzza, the consort of the Chief God, Dushara.

Some workshops for metal and stone have been found in the complex and these were probably in use later in the 1st century AD when the temple was remodeled. The stone-built temple was totally destroyed in the earthquake of 363 AD.

The Colonnaded Street ends at the Arched Gate, probably built in the 2nd century AD, after the completion of the street, to act as a ceremonial entrance to the sacred precinct (temenos) of the Qasr Al-Bint Temple.

The triple arched gate, which would originally have been closed with huge wooden doors, is of standard Greco-Roman design, but decorated with zoomorphic and geometric motifs showing marked Nabataean features. It is an interesting example of the blend of different cultures.

Once through the Arched Gate one is standing within the sacred precinct of what is today known as the Qasr Al-Bint Temple. This is the only substantial stone-built structure in Petra still standing. Constructed some time around 30 BC - 40 AD, it was built to impress.

Set upon a raised podium, its massive 23 m high walls still dominate the precinct, which also housed an open-air altar. It was the most important temple of the town, dedicated to Dushara, the chief God of the Nabataeans, who later became assimilated with the more familiar Greek god of wine, Dionysus, especially important in Petra due to the custom of funerary banquets where wine would have been drunk.

Inside, the temple is divided into 3 rooms of which the middle room would have served as the holy of holies. This would have had a raised platform bearing a representation of the god Dushara. The typical Nabataean way of representing their deities was by a stone god block (betyle) with a stylized portrayal of the eyes, nose and mouth.

Later, under Greco-Roman influence, they began to depict their gods in statue form. We know from other sources that the interior of Dushara's temple gleamed with the many gold offerings, which filled it. The temple was damaged in the late 3rd century AD, but, remarkably, the main walls remained standing in spite of several subsequent earthquakes.

Al-Habees
The small but interesting museum is to be found in an unusual Nabataean structure with 5 windows, set into the hillside of Al-Habees. Beyond the museum, on the other side of the hill, is situated the Habees High Place.

This has all the standard facilities of a high place; an altar, benches, a water cistern and approach stairway, but on a small scale, suggesting that it was perhaps a private place of worship.

It commands breathtaking views over the Wadi Sayyagh, one of Petra's most beautiful wadis, especially in spring and autumn. Some was down the wadi is to be found a stone quarry which the Nabataeans exploited.

On the summit of Al-Habees, is situated a 12th century AD Crusader fortress. Continuing around the hillside one comes across the Columbarium, an intriguing Nabataean tomb fitted with hundreds of shallow niches, the purpose of which remains uncertain.

Shortly after this, and visible from the Qasr Al-Bint below, is the Unfinished Tomb which clearly demonstrates the Nabataeans' technique of construction, excavating their rock-cut buildings from the top and working downwards.

High Place of Sacrifice
The steep half-hour climb from the theater up to the High Place of Sacrifice on the summit of the Attuf Ridge is well worth the effort. Paths and stairways, which were part of the original Nabataean processional way, lead upwards through spectacular mountain scenery until the long, flat summit is reached.

The most immediately obvious monuments as one reaches the top are the two 7 m high rock obelisks which were made by carving away the surface of the mountain to leave only these 2 protuberances; a formidable undertaking.

The obelisks stand some 30 m apart on an east/west alignment and probably represent the 2 most important Nabataean gods, Dushara and his consort Al-Uzza. Across the gully lies the High Place of Sacrifice, the best preserved of all such sacred places of the ancient world.

This may have been created by the Nabataeans, as the high quality of the stone work would indicate, or it may date back to their predecessors, the Edomites. The rock was leveled to form a shallow courtyard with benches (triclinia) on the north, east and south sides facing the altar platform, on which animal sacrifices were made.

These sacrifices represented the renewal of the close relationship between man and his gods and blood was, of course, a symbol of life. A betyle probably once stood on the top of the altar platform.

A nearby cistern would have provided the water necessary to the ritual. After enjoying the sensational views over the never-ending folds of hills, one may descend to the city center by a different processional way, which follows the Wadi Farasa.

The first monument of interest is the Lion Monument. The lion was associated with the goddess Al-Uzza and this fountain would have provided refreshment for the pilgrims following this processional way up to the High Place.

The water would appear to have spouted from the Lion's mouth and it was then carried down the hillside through the rock-cut channel visible alongside the stairway.

At the bottom of the stairway one reaches the Garden Temple Complex. On an upper terrace stand a hall and a cistern which once held water brought from the springs 4 km away. This water was subsequently distributed throughout the city center by means of a network of cisterns, channels and pipes.

The portico of the temple on the lower terrace is formed by 2 engaged and 2 round free-standing columns, examples of which are rarely found in Petra. Many small wall-niches lead us on to the Roman Soldier Tomb with its triclinium opposite it.

Although now separate, these 2 monuments would once have been joined by a porticoed courtyard to form a sepulchral complex. In the niches of the tomb's facade there are fragments of figures in Roman military dress, which give the tomb its name.

These figures, the size of the tomb and the classical style of its architecture would suggest it was built after the Roman annexation of 106 AD for a person of considerable importance.

The funerary banqueting hall (triclinium) opposite is notable as having the only carved interior decoration in Petra, with fluted engaged half-columns. The colors of the natural rock are also amongst the most striking in the city.

Nearby are the Renaissance Tomb and the Broken Pediment Tomb. The path then passes many other tombs and houses set out in streets of different levels before reaching the city center.

Al-Deir (The Monastery)
The modern name of Al-Deir comes from the fact that the Nabataean structure was perhaps used by Christians in the Byzantine period. However, the processional way, which we follow upwards from the restaurant near the museum, through the Wadi Al-Deir for an hour, is Nabataean.

It is a tiring climb made worthwhile not only by the other monuments to be seen en route, but also by the mountain scenery and splendid views. After a short walk one reaches the Lion Triclinium set in a small side wadi. It is so called because of the 2 badly eroded lions carved either side of the doorway.

Lions, it will be recalled, were associated, in Nabataean sculpture, with the goddess Al-Uzza. The higher one climbs the more impressive the views become until one finally emerges at the Hermitage, chambers excavated in the rock, decorated with many carved crosses.

From this point there is a magnificent view back to the city center and the Royal Tombs. A short climb through the narrow passage brings one out suddenly onto the large open area in front of Al-Deir where no doubt the faithful congregated after completing the processional walk.

Al-Deir itself is cut into the mountainside but not dominated by it. One really needs to see a human figure at its base to appreciate the huge scale of the largest facade in Petra.

The doorway alone is over 8 m high. The temple/tomb is devoid of decoration, but striking in its simplicity and magnitude. It was no doubt an extremely important site of pilgrimage with its carefully orchestrated processional way terminating in the vast open area in front. A short way beyond, one is rewarded by magnificent views from a new perspective in the direction of the Wadi Araba to the west.

Siq Al-Barid or Little Petra

The Siq Al-Barid is located to the north of Petra, only a 10 minute drive away. A classical temple stands guard outside the miniature siq which would appear to have been an important suburb of the city of Petra, situated at the point where several ancient caravan routes met, linking Wadi Araba with Gaza, Egypt and the Mediterranean coast.

The narrow file, only some 350 m long, is crammed with tombs, temples, triclinia, houses, water channels and cisterns, in brief, a "Little Petra". Of particular note are the remains of painted frescoes on plaster dating from the 1st century AD, which are to be found in one of the biclinia.

Petra Valley, large

Road to Petra, large

map of Petra

Key of the Map
1. The Shiq شق
2. The Khazaneh خزانه
3. Necropolis
4. Roman Amphitheatre
5. The High Place of Sacrifice
6. Tombs
7. Royal Tombs
8. Tomb of Sextius Florentinus
9. Market Place
10. Colonnaded street
11. Temenos Gateway
12. Qasr al-Bint Firaun قصر البنت فرعون
13. Crusader castle
14. Temple of the Winged Lions
15. to el-Deir - The Monastery
16. El-Deir, The Monastery

google search for Little Petra

Petra pics

Road to Petra

Petra Valley

View from Jebele Haroon

Nabatean Houses

Nabatean Tombs

The dam at Petra

The Shiq, شق - from the air

Cliffs by the shiq

Entering the Shiq-1

Entering the Shiq-2

The Shiq, شق - looking to the top

The Shiq, شق - going towards the Treasury

The Shiq, شق - water channels at the sides

The shiq, The Century Magazine, Nov. 1885

The Shiq, شق - the cleft in the rocks through which Petra 's Treasury is visible

What Johannes L. Burckhardt found in 1812

The Treasury, The Century mgazine, Nov. 1885

The Treasury, Khazaneh (or Library), خزانه

The Treasury, Khazaneh (largest photo), خزانه

Treasury from above

The Treasury: a unique angle

The Treasury, Khazaneh & opposite end, خزانه

When standing on the Treasury Steps you can look back at the siq and see how high you are above everyone. You can also see how level the plaza area is. This is all an illusion, as the Plaza floor is really several meters below ground level.

The best way to estimate the level of the plaza floor, is to look at the tombs that are on your right as you exit the siq. At this point, most people are looking at the Treasury, and they fail to look right. Right beside them is the 'top' of a djinn rock, and just behind it is the 'top' of a tomb peeking out of the ground. This tomb has recently been excavated, and now tourists can clamber down some stairs to see inside.

Ground penetrating radar has been conducted and doorways 'underneath the Treasury' and a fountain in the middle of the plaza were discovered. The excavations in front of the Treasury have uncovered one of these doors.