Petra
See more Archaeological Sites. See best of Petra in Jordan.
|
More holidays »
Featured Holiday
‘Petra’With its monumental façades sculpted out of solid rock, Petra is one of the world's most impressive open art galleries.
Petra was the capital of an ancient and powerful kingdom of the Nabataeans, in the first, second and third centuries BC. They built spectacular buildings and carved façades, with water flowing in every corner. After conquest by the emperor Trajan, Petra slowly declined under Roman and then Byzantine rule - a fourth century earthquake damaging much of the monumental architecture.
However, the remains of the ancient capital, preserved amongst the shifting sands and in the dry heat, became an object of curiosity amongst travellers in the Middle Ages, and was 're-discovered' by western archeologists in the early 19th century. Today it is a world heritage site, much featured in western romantic literature and movie-making.
5 / 5
Review by editor ‘Petra’'Inhabited since prehistoric times, this Nabataean caravan-city, situated between the Red Sea and the Dead Sea, was an important crossroads between Arabia, Egypt and Syria-Phoenicia. Petra is half-built, half-carved into the rock, and is surrounded by mountains riddled with passages and gorges. It is one of the world's most famous archaeological sites, where ancient Eastern traditions blend with Hellenistic architecture.'
Copyright © UNESCO/World Heritage Centre. All rights reserved. 5 / 5 Review by press. ‘Excerpt from 'Seventh Heaven'’By Piers Moore Ede for The Guardian, First published July 14,exc 2007
...Hidden in the heart of the Shara mountains between domes, pinnacles and castellated peaks is one of the world's greatest treasures. Forgotten for hundreds of years, interest in Petra was rekindled by an Anglo-Swiss explorer, James Burckhardt who, in 1812, disguised himself as a Muslim scholar and persuaded local bedouins to guide him to the forgotten city.
Some 2,400 years ago, a tribe called the Nabateans carved more than 800 buildings and monuments out of the red sandstone, among them royal tombs, an 8,000-seater amphitheatre, temples and, perhaps most impressively, an ingenious system of pipes, reservoirs, aqueducts and cisterns to supply the city with water.
In the evening light, we gathered around El Khazneh (Treasury of the Pharaohs), a wondrous salmon coloured temple with Corinthian columns rising 130ft into the rock. "Before the war, there would have been 2,000 tourists here," Yamman lamented. "But now there are few. In that sense, you are lucky. One should not be crowded when looking upon such beauty." Full Artilce from The Guardian 5 / 5 Review by press. ‘Well met by Moonlight’By Mark Jones for the Telegraph First published December 20, 2004
An English couple sat on the steps of the theatre in Petra and surveyed the busy street scene with distaste. "Shame it's so noisy," he said. She pointed to the hawkers selling cold drinks and postcards. "And it spoils the place, doesn't it, when they allow those people to sell things everywhere?"
But those floggers of warm Pepsi and faded postcards are heirs to a great tradition. Petra made its fortune from being an international trading crossroads prior to the birth of Christ. Whatever the vigorous commercialism of today's site, it's monastic compared to its Nabataean heyday.
But it is possible to experience a silent and sepulchral Petra. You just have to fetch up there on the right night. The experience might not be authentic; to recreate night-time in Petra in the 1st century BC you'd probably need to go drinking and whoring with a bunch of legionnaires. But as inauthentic experiences go, it's one of the most amazing the Middle East has to offer. Full Article from the Telegraph 5 / 5 Review by press. ‘Excerpts from "In Historic Petra, Dazzling Sights for a Small Audience"’By Michael Janofsky for The New York Times First published September 10, 2006
NO matter what you know of Petra — the Jordanian historical site famous for its deep pink rock facades and (to some movie fans) as the setting for the final scene in “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” — nothing quite prepares you for the experience of seeing it in person.
There is no other way to say it: Petra is dazzling.
“This makes Machu Picchu look like a pile of stones,” my wife, Joan, said to me as we spent nearly seven hours this past March walking among vast rock formations and the facades, carved exquisitely into canyon walls, that have survived centuries of earthquakes and neglect...
...Over the centuries, Petra was known only to occasional plunderers and the Bedouins who remained in the area. It was altogether unknown to Westerners until 1812, when a Swiss explorer, masquerading as an Arab in Egypt, heard tales of an ancient city in the mountains 250 miles to the east and coaxed a guide to take him there.
Petra is now a United Nations World Heritage Site, a status that helps preserve its main attractions and protect areas that have suffered erosion. The daily entry fee is 21 dinars, about $30 at 1.43 dinars to $1, and the basic tour is a 7.5-mile round trip on foot that takes the better part of a day. But à la carte options abound, starting the moment you pass through the entry gates. Ful Article from The New York Times 5 / 5 Review by press. ‘Excerpt from 'Crossing Jordan'’By Jonathan Pearlman for The Sydney Morning Herald First published March 6, 2004
...There is something mystical about Jordan's endless desert plains. Perhaps this is why the country has had its share of Messianic and quasi-Messianic visitors. There was Moses, who died in the Moabite hills after leading the Hebrew slaves out of Egypt. And Jesus, who is believed to have been baptised by John the Baptist on the east bank of the Jordan River. The prophet Muhammad passed through the desert on the way from Mecca to Damascus.
In more recent times there was T. E. Lawrence, who eventually admitted to an army colleague that his epic tales of his own vaunting heroism had been "overdone". And there was Indiana Jones, who escaped a Nazi tank to discover the holy grail at Petra's secret temple in the finale to his eponymous trilogy.
Petra is a true wonder of the world. Somehow, around the fourth century BC, a Bedouin tribe was able to build an opulent city in an arid valley sunk into a long range of sandy desert mountains. The source of their wealth was one of the region's rare water reserves, the springs at Wadi Moussa, where Moses is supposed to have sinfully drawn water by striking a rock. With an elaborate system of dams, tunnels and aqueducts, the Nabateans harnessed the springs and created a thriving city of fountains and pools.
We followed our latest guide, Solomon, down a three-kilometre gravel path towards the city's remains. The path winds through a narrow gorge, the Siq, flanked by 150-metre-high cliffs and guarded by huge blocks of carved stone. These are called "god blocks" and are dedicated to the deities supposed to protect the water supply.
About a third of the way along the Siq's winding path, a sharp corner opens into an enormous square enclosed by the cliffs. On the wall facing us was the famed Treasury, a 40-metre-high elaborate facade carved into the rock. Many early Victorian explorers responded to this remarkable sight by breaking into florid verse about the "rose-red city". So, beholding the 2000-year-old tomb-monument, I was a little disappointed to discover the extent to which my excited response was coloured by the realisation that this was where Indy had found the holy grail.
Then Solomon turned to us and said: "There it is: the red rock of Petra, where Indiana Jones found the holy grail in The Last Crusade."
We began to hurry off towards the cavern at the foot of the monument to see if we could catch a glimpse of rotting tombs and hidden treasure, but Solomon cut in with some bad news. "There's nothing to see inside," he said. "Go on, have a look - there's nothing to see."
So we made our way up the stairway towards the deep cavern and, when our eyes had adjusted to the darkness, we peered inside and saw that there was nothing to see. Just a deep, empty cavern with a faint smell of urine.
Solomon, sensing our disappointment, offered some encouragement. "There was treasure here," he said. "Or it was thought there was. I come from the Bedouins that settled here and lived among the ruins. And it was long thought that there was treasure in the pot at the head of the statue."
Indeed, above the statue of Isis at the top of the Treasury was a large pot that looked as if it had been nibbled by the two stone eagles flanking it.
"When the Bedouins in this area first got their hands on rifles," Solomon said, "the first thing they did was come here to shoot at the pot to make the treasure pour out. Those holes are bulletholes put there by the local Bedouins, probably by my grandfather."
Further along, the Siq opens up to the well-kept remains of the Nabatean city with its amphitheatre, temple, monastery and aristocratic mansions. The surrounding cliff faces are filled with tombs and sculpted monuments, smaller yet sometimes more intricate than those of the Treasury.
Petra is Jordan's most famous site, but the country is strewn with ruins and natural and historical sites that few tourists visit. ... Full Article from The Sydney Morning Herald 5 / 5 Review by press. Have you been here? Why not add your own review. |
Photo by jdw
«
»
More great holidays » Selected holidays
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
