Petra

Petra, which its original inhabitants called Raqmu, sits in the south of Jordan. It is an ancient city and an archaeological site. The city is known for buildings carved directly into rock and for its systems of water channels. Because the sandstone it is carved from has a pinkish hue, people often call it the "Rose City." Petra is recognized as one of the New 7 Wonders of the World and is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

People lived in the area around Petra as early as 7000 BC. In the 4th century BC, the Nabataeans, a nomadic Arab people, settled there. By the 2nd century BC, Petra had become the capital of the Nabataean Kingdom. The Nabataeans took advantage of Petra’s location near the incense trade routes, turning it into a major hub for regional trade, which brought them significant wealth. They managed to thrive in the desert by collecting rainwater efficiently and practicing desert farming.

Petra reached its peak in the 1st century AD. Around that time, the structure known as Al-Khazneh was built, possibly as a tomb for the Nabataean king Aretas IV. The city’s population at its height is estimated to have been about 20,000. In 106 AD, the Romans took over Nabataea, renaming it Arabia Petraea. Petra’s importance faded as sea trade routes became more common, and a major earthquake in 363 destroyed many of its buildings. During the Byzantine period, several Christian churches were constructed, but the city kept declining. By the early Islamic era, it was mostly abandoned, with only a few nomads living there. The Western world did not know about it again until 1812, when the Swiss traveler Johann Ludwig Burckhardt rediscovered it.

UNESCO calls Petra “one of the most precious cultural properties of man’s cultural heritage.” It is a national symbol of Jordan and the country’s most popular tourist attraction, drawing close to a million visitors each year.

The earliest known farmers in the area settled in Beidha, a Pre-Pottery Neolithic settlement just north of Petra, by 7000 BC. In the Bronze Age, Petra appears in Egyptian campaign records and the Amarna letters under the names Pel, Sela, or Seir. During the Iron Age (1200–600 BC), the Edomites occupied the Petra area. The surrounding mountains created a natural water reservoir for them, making Petra a convenient stop for merchants and a strong location for trade in goods like wine, olive oil, and wood. Nomads initially accompanied the Edomites but later left; the Edomites stayed and left their mark before the Nabataeans arrived. A story claims 10,000 men were thrown off the mountain Umm el-Biyara, but scholars debate this. The Edomite site excavated at the top of Umm el-Biyara dates to no earlier than the 7th century BC (Iron II).

The Nabataeans were one of several nomadic Bedouin tribes roaming the Arabian Desert, moving their herds to find pasture and water. Though they were initially part of Aramaic culture, most modern scholars reject the idea that they had Aramean roots. Instead, archaeological, religious, and linguistic evidence points to them being a northern Arabian tribe. Evidence suggests the Nabataean name for Petra was Raqēmō, written in inscriptions as rqmw or rqm.

The Hebrew Bible says the region was home to the Midianites during Moses’ time, ruled by five kings, one named Rekem. The historian Josephus wrote that a city the Greeks called Petra “ranks highest in the land of the Arabs” and was still called Rekeme by all Arabs of his time, after its royal founder. Eusebius’s Onomasticon also identifies Rekem as Petra. The Arabic word raqama means “to mark, to decorate,” so Rekeme might be a Nabataean word referring to the famous carved rock façades.

In 1964, workers clearing rubble near the gorge entrance found funerary inscriptions in Nabatean script; one mentioned a man named Petraios, born in Raqmu (Rekem) and buried in Garshu (Jerash). An older theory suggested Petra might be the biblical place called Sela, but the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica noted that Sela simply means “rock” in Hebrew and may not refer to a specific city. It is possible Petra was part of the nation of Edom. The historian Diodorus Siculus described the Nabataeans as a nomadic group who believed that owning possessions made people vulnerable to those in power—a view that would change over time.

His account of military expeditions against the Nabataeans in 312 BC mentions a natural rock fortress, but not a proper town by that name.

In 106 AD, when Aulus Cornelius Palma Frontonianus was governor of Roman Syria, the part of Arabia under Petra’s rule was absorbed into the Roman Empire as Arabia Petraea. The native dynasty ended, but the city continued to flourish under Roman rule. Around this time, the Petra Roman Road was built. A century later, during the reign of Severus Alexander, when the city was at its most splendid, the minting of its own coins stopped, and no more lavish tombs were constructed.