Petra Ancient City of Stone

Petra Ancient City of Stone

  

Discover Petra, the ancient city of stone

 

Petra,which is the Greek word forrock, is the name for a town in Jordan that has been carved entirely out of the sandstone desert cliffs in the region. The ancient city is situated at an estimated three hours drive, south of Amman, the capital of Jordan.Petra was apparently founded by anancient nomadic Arab tribe known as the Nabataeans. Historians claim that the city was established centuries before the birth of Jesus Christ, the biblical Christian messiah.

 

Brief history

 

The Nabataean tribe was a very skilled tribe and were very renowned for their in depth expertise in various skills includingagriculture and trade, architectural stone-carving, and even engineering. Historians further claim that the ancient city of Petra could have possibly been established in 312 BC or even earlier, and wasthe designated capital city of the Nabataeans and its people. Today, the city is a standing symbol of Jordan’s rich culture and heritage and is alsothe kingdoms most popularly visited tourist attraction.

 

Location

 

Petra, ancient city of stone is situated on a slope of the area known as Jebel al-Madhbah, in a basin that lies among the chain of mountains which form the eastern flank of Wadi Araba. Wadi Arabi or Arabhah is a large valley that runs from the Dead Sea right up to the Gulf of Aqaba.

 

 

Prevalence

 

As in 1985, this ancient has been identified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site due to its cultural importance and the highly advanced civilization that lived there. According to historians, the first documented discovery of Petra was by a group of international archaeologists, way back in the early 1800s.And ever since, it has been flocked by archeologists and historians who consider the location to be a historical goldmine. It is also one of the premier and prominent tourist sites in the Middle East. This historical city was even used as a filming location for the widely popular, 1989 American feature film,Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

 

Although the ancient city was literally carved from nothing but the sandstone cliffs of southern Jordan, the Nabataean tribe that inhabited ithad constructed a wide array of tombs and temples, houses, great halls, altars, and evenaqueducts. The Nabataean had established an advanced civilization that was located at the crossroads of the ancient Far East, and was a center for trade and commerce as the various“spice”routes and trading trails of thatera were all flowing through Petra.

 

Rediscovery

 

At the peak of its civilization, the city of Petra had housed some nearly 20,000 Nabataeans. This tribe had successfully built an overly advanced system of aqueducts and waterways that provided their city with the precious water, in the middle of the arid desert. And when the city was "rediscovered" during the early 1800s, many clues to the habits and routines of daily life in this were unearthed. And even to this day, archeologist are only beginning reveal what Petra had looked like, over 2,000 years ago.