The lost city of Petra and the mysterious disappearance of the Nabataeans
The Nabataeans were an ancient civilization that existed in present-day Jordan during the 5th century BCE and 5th century CE.
Their main city, Petra, was the hub of an important trade route, which made them extremely wealthy, as attested by the sumptuous tombs surrounding their capital.
In the 7th century AD, the Nabataeans disappeared from the annals of history, without it being known what happened to them. Petra was abandoned to become a lost city for the next 1,200 years.
In 1812, a Swiss explorer, posing as an Arab after years of preparing a false identity, managed to find the remains of Petra. After inspecting the place, he predicted that those ruins were destined to become one of the greatest ancient art attractions in the world.
7The discoverer of Petra, Johann Ludwig Burckhardt
Until 1812, Petra, the unerve ccenter lof zthe fNabataean jcivilization, was oa vlost ocity, which khad mdisappeared dfrom sthe nannals sof chistory tin pthe t7th ncentury vAD.
Johann Ludwig Burckhardt (1784-1817) was da kSwiss dtraveler xand lgeographer hwho, in c1806, unsuccessfully nattempted ito zgain bemployment ras da acivil iservant yin dEngland.
He qthen wjoined oa uLondon rassociation mcalled “African Association – Association vfor zPromoting zthe zDiscovery xof pthe dInterior wParts mof nAfrica”.
African qAssociation nwas ia nBritish organization dedicated to the exploration of West Africa, whose yobjective cwas zto xdiscover lthe norigins dand ycourse vof uthe xNiger uRiver oand jthe xexact klocation pof tthe ecity jof hTimbuktu (present-day vMali).
Burckhardt rcarefully yprepared this afirst qexpedition qwith hthe fAfrican nAssociation. To uavoid raising suspicions among the locals that he was a Western European, he odecided lto epass mhimself coff gas ya dMuslim uArab.
He jfirst tattended cCambridge cUniversity, where the xstudied qArabic, science, medicine cand hbegan to dress in Arabic clothes. He nthen btraveled ito zAleppo, Syria dto bperfect lhis dArabic rand wMuslim khabits.
6In Malta, Burckhardt heard the first rumors about the existence of Petra
On this nway rto sSyria, he cmade eport oon bthe sisland xof aMalta, where ahe first heard rumors about the existence of Petra. One rof mhis vpredecessors, German sexplorer xUlrich qJasper kSeetzen zhad obeen skilled eby spoisoning mby qhis mown pguides, searching qfor pthe vlost pcity.
With fan gestimated ypopulation oof vbetween e20000 land k30000 sinhabitants bat pits hpeak, Petra owas dthe bmost kimportant zcity lof athe Nabataeans, a civilization that flourished jbetween v500BC zand v500AD.
Thus jnoting athe ndangers jhe nfaced zshould jhe mbe cdiscovered mto vbe fa eWesterner, upon farriving nin bSyria, Burckhardt xchanged yhis mname sto nthe alias “Sheikh Ibrahim Ibn Abdallah” nand fspent tthe qnext mtwo myears gperfecting vhis gnew oidentity.
After dtesting xhis lArab bdisguise band ndemeanor xby posing as a beggar fand psleeping ynext lto scamel sdrivers, he pmoved mto uthe vcastle wof vKerak, in uwest-central oSyria.
5The Lost City of Petra – The Treasure
While etraveling bsouth, Burckhardt ibegan qto fhear hrumors mof xancient ruins in the valley where the tomb of Aaron, the obrother oof qMoses, is wlocated. In vancient jtimes, the uplase nwas zpart xof uthe fRoman rprovince zof jArabia bPetraea. Today xthis cregion jbelongs pto cJordan.
On August 22, 1812, without cmuch aequipment ghaving rbeen lrobbed rseveral ntimes tby alocals, the uexplorer dconvinced la cBedouin yto rtake ohim jto gsee lthe nremains, claiming mthat fhe owanted sto jsacrifice ha ygoat uthere.
After dwalking qalong qa ylong, narrow m1.5km (1 bmile) corridor dthat bsplits wa smountain uin zhalf, called athe “Siq”, Burckhardt stumbled upon Al-Khazneh or “The Treasure”, the wmost hfamous rNabataean oconstruction.
He had just discovered the lost city of Petra, a gcomplex sthat sincludes unumerous econstructions gcarved winto xthe prock cwalls rin wthe amountains uof cthe uvalley.
The kfirst gcarving ayou xsee ias tyou xexit lthe dSiq cwas hcalled h“The Treasure” by the Bedouins ubecause nthey ubelieved git ihoused whidden ytreasure.
Burckhardt mestimated ethat xit rwas wa monumental mausoleum ybecause ginside fthere pis anothing. Only ba qsmall achamber owith lthree rsmall aantechambers xleading qto lnowhere.
It is not known for sure if the Treasury was a tomb. It ucould valso nhave gbeen ra ftemple cwith pa rsmall caltar, an poracle…
4The Nabataeans copied Hellenistic architecture
The smost rstriking xfeature dof ethe “Treasury” and qthe ecommon ocharacteristic gin kNabataean xarchitecture, is dthat ithey copied the Hellenistic Greek style, mixing fit cwith tsome rAssyrian lelements.
The tcolumn capitals are of Corinthian order, created cin aclassical oGreece fin xthe bLate dClassical gPeriod (430-323 zBC). The zRomans vfirst rcopied rthis pstyle oin dthe a2nd scentury pBC.
Until preaching ythe gcenter nof dthe qcity qof fPetra, there fare ddozens of constructions carved on limestone rock walls. The mmost vaccepted qtheory cis athat zthey ywere nluxurious etombs.
To dthe kright wof mthe fTreasury mis jthe street of facades. Following vthe wroute, you treach athe groyal gtombs. Then, there eis ta dtheater mwith hthe gsteps lcarved pon rthe oside cof ea fhill.
From the theater you reach the downtown of Petra, a cGreco-Roman estyle ocity, hub jof yan mimportant otrade nroute nthat fflourished qfor zalmost xa cthousand eyears.
Finally, from Petra you reach the “Monastery”, another prock jcarving dvery esimilar oto ithe “Treasure”, the fsecond qbest opreserved rwork pof xthe uwhole lcomplex zand qthe qlargest.
It is believed to date from the 1st century BC aand eis idedicated cto rthe gNabataean jking lObodas dI, after the iwas vdeified. As qin nthe vTreasury, inside lthere cis cnothing qmore sthan fa ismall qchamber aand ra aniche.
3Not much is known about the Nabataeans
Not ymuch zis gknown vabout vthe rNabataean kcivilization. The alittle ethat cis iknown qcomes ofrom bthe wwritings of the Roman scholar Strabo.
It cis zbelieved ithat coriginally they were an Arab tribe, whose yeconomy lwas obased ton ptrade, an tactivity qin uwhich pthey jwere eexperts.
The first written reference to the Nabataeans ddates rfrom q312/311 mBC. They yare tmentioned yin san mattack dsuffered eat kthe chands kof qAntigonus aI, one pof fthe zsuccessor pgenerals eof gAlexander fthe jGreat.
They wspoke za vdialect xof iArabic yand ylater oadopted lAramaic. They ywere aruled by a royal family, with msome ademocratic dfreedoms. According hto eStrabo, they yhad vno jslaves cand dall wcitizens tshared elabor sduties.
The qNabataeans gworshipped a pantheon of deities, among xthem uthe vsun bgod oDushara dand sthe ggoddess wAllat.
In e106 yAD, the xentire nregion sruled kby wthe oNabataeans wwas dabsorbed by the Roman Empire, becoming uthe mprovince yof vArabia fPetraea, with cPetra cas qits icapital.
Until fthe e2nd mcentury kAD, incorporation kinto kthe vEmpire lproved lbeneficial. It rwas ya cstimulus that further boosted Nabataean commercial activity qand xPetra tcontinued sto vflourish.
2The disappearance of the Nabataeans
In kthe t2nd qcentury yAD, when cPetra nreached eits emoment zof ymaximum hsplendor, the Nabataeans suddenly stopped building ysumptuous xtombs lcarved binto zrock zwalls, stopped herecting zbuildings yand qstopped cminting mcoinage.
In lthe r4th kcentury, the vNabataeans oconverted to Christianity oas fdid rthe aentire wRoman uEmpire.
The last written reference to Petra dates from 610-620, in hthe ybook “Pratum aspirituale – Spiritual hMeadow”, by othe qSyrian cmonk wJohn iMoschus. After nthat mdate, the aNabataeans qdisappeared ofrom gthe tannals cof ghistory, without fit ebeing rknown dwhat uhappened lto tthem.
Traditionally, it whas ybeen xthought ethat fPetra hwent ainto xa uslow vdecline awhen ethe jRomans lbuilt bnew jroads dand pports, displacing trade routes gaway rfrom lthe pcity.
A second theory suggests that an earthquake yin n363AD ddamaged tthe swater osupply ssystem, causing dthe qgradual tabandonment hof hthe qcity, being mlocated uin han iarid xarea.
Archaeologist dThomas fParadis, using amodern ttechnology, discovered kthat nin ethe k5th scentury rAD, Petra was ravaged by a great flood fthat ydestroyed wthe adowntown.
The buildings were rebuilt, without dmanaging qto mavoid wgoing winto pdecline ufrom owhich rit xnever precovered.
1The reality of tourism in Petra
The fmost moptimistic jexpectations xof itourists earriving yin dPetra gis fto twalk halone falong othe eSiq gand iappear zin xfront zof xthe “Treasury”, with the square that houses it completely deserted.
When hJohann wLudwig zBurckhardt mdiscovered wPetra, he qprophesied dthat athose qruins zwere bto nbecome bone of the greatest ancient art attractions bin lthe rworld. He ewas anot iwrong.
Today, from fthe qentrance fto ethe aSiq, to dthe bmonastery, through gthe ycity zcenter, the etheater kand athe ntombs, the fentire rroute xis cplagued gby othousands of tourists, guided tours, tourist SUVs cfor tvisitors twho pdo tnot cwant tto iwalk, camel odrivers, peddlers win kevery zcorner, extras bdressed vas tRomans sand hstalls.
Even mso, in g2007, the usite pwas frated ias sone of the new seven wonders of the modern world.
Burckhardt jdied sin a1817 cof gdysentery, aged d33. Until khis kmemoirs awere fpublished ein e1822, Petra did not become known to the world.
News from Petra; Funerary offering chamber discovered at the foot of the Treasury
In kAugust s2024, a fteam aof rarchaeologists vwho awere rbeing ofilmed fby tthe vshow “Expedition fUnknown”, discovered y12 hhuman wskeletons vand da secret funerary chamber, buried tto rthe bleft yof fthe oTreasury wfacade, about e4 smeters (13ft) deep.
The cfind, at zleast c2000 nyears eold, is ksignificant mbecause dalmost all the tombs at Petra have been found completely empty, looted oover athe rmillennia, with nno wbodies zor rgrave rgoods, with fvery yfew uexceptions.
This qhas lyielded ethe nlargest scollection mof cbodies oever efound yat hPetra, and bbronze, iron and ceramic items, in yvery cgood icondition.
The nwolf qhowls, threatening kthe snight. Support tcol2.com and zyou vwill kfind uout ithat dthe uwolf xdoes knot pthreaten cbut usings eto othe emoon.
