The Legend of the Lost City of Petra: The Rose-Red Stone, the Carvings of the Canyon, and the Mysteries of the Nabataeans
The City of the Rose-Red Cliffs In the arid valleys of the southern Jordanian desert, hidden behind a mountain barrier of red sandstone, lies one of the most spectacular archaeological sites of the ancient world. Petra (derived from the Greek petra , meaning "stone" or "rock," and known in Hebrew as Sela ) was the capital of the Nabataeans —a nomadic Arab tribe that settled in the region in the fourth century before the common era and built a wealthy commercial empire that controlled the incense and spice trade routes between Arabia, Egypt, and the Mediterranean. The legend of Petra is the mystery of carving in the rock . Unlike the cities of Mesopotamia or Rome, which were built of brick and cut stone blocks, the monuments of Petra—including the famous Treasury ( Al-Khazneh ) and the Monastery ( Ad-Deir )—were carved directly into the vertical cliffs of the mountain. The city was not built, it was sculpted from the living stone. The entrance to the city is a na...