The first impact upon accessing the archaeological site of Petra, in Jordan, is a one and a half meter high image of Indiana Jones. A striking claim in one of the souvenir shops where reproductions of his whip, his hat, magnets with his face are sold… And similar items are also found in nearby shops. It is his way of thanking –and exploiting, of course– the publicity boom that the premiere of The Last Crusade represented in 1989.
In the film, the Treasury of Petra appears for 70 seconds: a tomb carved into the red rock, which in fiction represented the entrance to the temple of the Holy Grail (its imposing 12-meter-high Hellenistic façade was, of course, the hit). . Those 70 seconds became an international claim from which the country, even today, benefits.
But if Professor Jones hadn’t been so busy saving his father and running from the Nazis, he would have discovered that behind this Treasure there were a few more waiting…
The ancient city of Petra, which extends for about 50 km2, was the capital of the Nabataeans, a people of western Arabia that lived its heyday between the 4th century B.C. and the I AD They called her Raqmu. They founded it more than 2,000 years ago –it is not known precisely when– in a privileged location within the trade route between Egypt and Mesopotamia. And although the heat and aridity of the desert made it hardly habitable, the Nabateans built an ingenious network of dams, reservoirs and pipes (like the one in the photo) to make the most of the scarce water available.
The majority of the population lived simply, in houses with simple architecture and furniture, in whose patios they used to eat and sleep. The wealthy, on the other hand, had villas luxuriously decorated and perfumed with delicate fragrances. Their tombs were carved into the rock, each more sumptuous. About 500 of these are preserved (the Treasury is one of them). And even so, the city is only a pale reflection of what it was in its time. In the year 363, when it was already part of the Roman Empire, a great earthquake devastated two thirds of its buildings.
But coming back to the present… the visit to Petra begins, once you have passed the shopping area, along a road that winds for about 800 meters. It is called Bab as-Siq (the door of the Siq), through which you can already admire the first remains of the ancient city. The tomb of the Obelisks stands out. The monument owes its name to four pointed pillars in the middle of which an eroded human figure can be distinguished. The set possibly represents five people who are buried there.
This path ends at the Siq, a narrow gorge with sinuous reddish walls. In its nearly 1,200 meters, there are some sacred niches, tombs and even a worn life-size relief of a person and a camel (a reminder of the caravans that once followed that same path). Then, like in the Indiana Jones movie, the gorge suddenly opens up before the Treasury. The sight is overwhelming despite the bustle of tourists and Bedouins ready to do business with them.
But what is beyond? The first is Calle de las Fachadas, a passage with more than 40 tombs carved into the walls, many of them with stairs and pilasters. Then there is the theater, the only one in the world carved out of rock. Created more than 2,000 years ago, the grandstand originally had a capacity for about 3,000 people, but the Romans expanded it to 8,500. The side entrance for the actors is still visible.
Further on are the Royal tombs. It is a set of four unique tombs, beginning with that of Silk. Its nickname derives from its pink, yellow and white veins, which evoke the brilliance of that material. The other three are: the tomb of the Palace, with a five-story façade (the largest in Petra) reminiscent of a Greek or Roman mansion; that of the Urna (it receives its name from an urn located on the pediment), which in the year 447 was enabled as a cathedral; and the Corinthian, badly damaged but in which Hellenistic decorative elements can still be seen.
The visit continues along Columnada street that marks the center of the old city. Oriented in an east-west direction, it follows the pattern of a cardo maximus but without crossing with a decumanus. When the Romans remodeled this road, at the beginning of the 1st century, the columns were covered with marble and there were shops between them.
At the beginning of Columnada street is the ninfeo, a public fountain fed by the water that came through the pipes that border the Siq. Already in the middle part of the road, on the left, the great temple is preserved. With an extension of 7,000 m2, it is presumed that it was a royal audience hall during the Nabataean empire. Then the Romans changed its use possibly to a civic center. Distributed on two levels, the enclosure is over 18 meters high.
Finally, at the other end of the street, stands the Qasr al-Bint. It is the most important temple in Petra, dedicated to Dushara, the supreme god of the Nabataeans (later associated with Zeus and Dionysus). The building, currently semi-ruined, was an almost square mass about 23 meters high. Its sacrificial altar, with images of various deities, was supposedly the main place of worship in the city.
A little further on, a detour to the right leads to the Byzantine church built in the middle of the 5th century. Much of its structure (beams, capitals, wall fragments) was reused to build other Petra monuments. However, under a tent a floor with excellent mosaics is preserved. Some of them originally decorated the walls.
Back on the main path, a steep slope leads to the top of a plateau. The path, with some 800 steps carved into the rock, is somewhat difficult, and in the summer sun, the climb can be exhausting (although there are shady sections to rest and numerous stalls with ice cream and cold drinks). There is the alternative of riding a donkey, but its unbridled speed and wobbling don’t seem to fit any stomach either…
In any case, the reward for effort is spectacular. At the end of the path stands ad-Deir (the monastery), a monument similar in appearance to the Treasury but larger (about 45 meters high). It takes its name from some crosses carved inside, which suggest the use of the enclosure as a Byzantine church. However, originally (in the 1st century) it was a Nabataean tomb.
These are the main points of interest that can be visited in a day well spent in Petra, but there are enough trails and monuments left to spend another day or two. In short, plenty of incentives for a visit from an archaeologist worth his salt. And more, if he has time once retired (or not).
