Description Water control Įxcavations have demonstrated that it was the ability of the Nabataeans to control the water supply that led to the rise of the desert city, creating an artificial oasis. Enclosed by towering rocks and watered by a perennial stream, Petra not only possessed the advantages of a fortress, but controlled the main commercial routes which passed through it to Gaza in the west, to Bosra and Damascus in the north, to Aqaba and Leuce Come on the Red Sea, and across the desert to the Persian Gulf. Pliny the Elder and other writers identify Petra as the capital of the Nabataean Kingdom and the centre of their caravan trade. Tourism in the historical city was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, but soon after started to pick up again, reaching 905,000 visitors in 2022. Tourist numbers peaked at 1.1 million in 2019, marking the first time that the figure rose above the 1 million mark. Petra is a symbol of Jordan, as well as Jordan's most-visited tourist attraction. In 2007, Petra was voted one of the New 7 Wonders of the World. UNESCO has described Petra as "one of the most precious cultural properties of man's cultural heritage". It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1985. Famous for its rock-cut architecture and water conduit system, Petra is also called the "Rose City" because of the colour of the stone from which it is carved. Īccess to the city is through a 1.2-kilometre-long ( 3⁄ 4 mi) gorge called the Siq, which leads directly to the Khazneh. It remained unknown to the western world until 1812, when Swiss traveller Johann Ludwig Burckhardt rediscovered it. In the Byzantine era, several Christian churches were built, but the city continued to decline and, by the early Islamic era, it was abandoned except for a handful of nomads. Petra's importance declined as sea trade routes emerged, and after an earthquake in 363 destroyed many structures. Petra fell to the Romans, who annexed Nabataea and renamed it as Arabia Petraea. Īlthough the Nabataean kingdom became a client state of the Roman Empire in the first century BC, it was only in 106 AD that it lost its independence. Petra flourished in the 1st century AD, when its Al-Khazneh structure – believed to be the mausoleum of Nabataean king Aretas IV – was constructed, and its population peaked at an estimated 20,000 inhabitants. They were particularly skillful in harvesting rainwater, agriculture, and stone carving. Unlike their enemies, the Nabataeans were accustomed to living in the barren deserts and were able to repel attacks by taking advantage of the area's mountainous terrain. The trading business gained the Nabataeans considerable revenue and Petra became the focus of their wealth. The Nabataeans were nomadic Arabs who invested in Petra's proximity to the incense trade routes by establishing it as a major regional trading hub. Archaeological work has only discovered evidence of Nabataean presence dating back to the second century BC, by which time Petra had become their capital. The area around Petra has been inhabited from as early as 7000 BC, and the Nabataeans might have settled in what would become the capital city of their kingdom as early as the 4th century BC. It is adjacent to the mountain of Jabal Al-Madbah, in a basin surrounded by mountains forming the eastern flank of the Arabah valley running from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba.
Petra ( Arabic: ٱلْبَتْراء, romanized: Al-Batraʾ Ancient Greek: Πέτρα, "Rock"), originally known to its inhabitants as Raqmu or Raqēmō ( Nabataean: 𐢛𐢚𐢓𐢈 * Raqēmō), is a historic and archaeological city in southern Jordan.
0 kommentar(er)
