Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The History of Petra

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hidden among the rugged desert mountains of the nation of Jordan is a city that was carved into rose-colored sandstone cliffs. It grew wealthy by controlling ancient trade routes, mastered the challenge of bringing water into a dry landscape, and blended Arabian traditions with influences from Greece and Rome. For centuries, it flourished as the capital of a powerful kingdom before fading from the world's memory, only to be rediscovered centuries later. Learn more about the ancient city of Petra. On this episode, episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. This episode is sponsored by What Could Go Right.

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Starting point is 00:01:45 Listen to what could go right on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. New episodes drop every Wednesday. Hey, y'all, it's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. Ever order furniture online and wonder what if? Like, what if it doesn't hold up? That sofa was four days old. You should have ordered from Wayfair. With Wayfair, there's no what if. Just style you love and quality you can trust. Visit Wayfair.ca. Every home. Petra is one of the ancient world's most spectacular cities. Carved into the rose-colored sandstone mountains of ancient Jordan, it served as the political and commercial center of the Nabatian kingdom, an Arab state that prospered by controlling trade across the desert to the Middle East.

Starting point is 00:02:29 Although Petra is often imagined as an isolated collection of monumental tombs, it was actually a large, sophisticated city with temples, markets, houses, workshops, and an elaborate water system. To understand why Petra was built, we need to understand the people who built it, the Nabatians. The region around Petra was inhabited long before the city ever reached prominence. Archaeological evidence shows human occupation in the area dating back to prehistoric times. Nearby settlements contain remains from the Neolithic period when some of the earliest farming communities in the region developed. During the Bronze and Iron Ages, the territory formed part of the cultural world of southeastern Transjordan. that being the lands just east of the Jordan River.

Starting point is 00:03:16 By the first millennium BC, was associated with the kingdom of Edom, whose inhabitants controlled parts of the mountainous region south of the Dead Sea. The precise relationship between the Edomites and the later Nabatians remains unclear. Petro was not simply an Edomite city that the Navitians inherited. Rather, the Nabatians gradually established themselves in the region

Starting point is 00:03:38 that had previously been occupied by Edomite communities and other peoples. The Nabatians were an Arab-speaking people whose early history is very poorly documented. They appear to have originated among nomadic or semi-nomadic communities living in northern Arabia. Over time, they moved into Southern Jordan and the Negev Desert, where they became involved in the caravan trade. The Nabatians did not leave behind a written history of their own. Most knowledge about their early development comes from archaeology, inscriptions, coins, and accounts written by Greek and Roman authors. Their language was Arabic, but their formal inscriptions were usually written in a form of Aramaic. Nabatian script later contributed to the development of the Arabic alphabet.

Starting point is 00:04:24 By the late 4th century BC, the Nabatians were already wealthy and organized enough to attract the attention of the successors of Alexander the Great. In 312 BC, Antigonus I monothalamus, one of Alexander's former generals, ordered an attack on the Nabatians. According to the Greek historian Diodorus Seculus, the Nabatians were able to escape into the desert and defeat the forces that were sent against them. Petra probably developed gradually rather than being founded at a single moment. During the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, the Nabatians increasingly settled in permanent communities while continuing to control trade routes through the desert. Petra became their principal political and ceremonial center. Its Nabatian name,

Starting point is 00:05:11 Rockmoo may have referred to the multicolored or pattern appearance of its sandstone cliffs. The etymology of the word Petra simply comes from the Greek word for rock. Petra lies in a rugged basin amongst the mountains of Southern Jordan, roughly halfway between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Akaba. The surrounding sandstone cliffs contain narrow valleys and gorges that made the site both easily defensible yet very difficult to approach. The best known entrance is the Sikh, a small narrow passage more than a kilometer long bordered in places by cliffs nearly 80 meters high.

Starting point is 00:05:49 The Sikh was formed by geological forces and later modified by the Naviteans. They paved parts of the path, carved religious niches into its walls, and installed channels that carried water towards the city. Petro's location offered several strategic advantages. The mountains protected it from attack, while routes through the route through the city. the surrounding valleys connected it with the Arabian Peninsula, the Mediterranean coast, Damascus, Egypt, and the Red Sea. The main disadvantage of the city was the shortage of reliable rainfall. The Nabatians overcame this problem through one of the most advanced water management

Starting point is 00:06:25 systems in the ancient world. But more on that in a bit. The city's position allowed the Nabatians to profit from the movement of goods between southern Arabia and the Mediterranean. Frankencense and Mur from Arabia were highly valued for religious rituals, medicine, perfumes, and funerary practices. Caravans also carried spices, textiles, metals, precious stones, and luxury products originating as far away as India, East Africa, and China. Petra became an important transfer point within this much larger commercial network. The Nabatians didn't merely tax passing caravans. They provided water, security, animals, guides, lodging, storage, and access to regional markets.

Starting point is 00:07:10 Their knowledge of wells, springs, desert routes, and seasonal conditions gave them a major advantage over rival powers. Petra was basically the ancient equivalent of an enormous truck stop located at the intersection of several major interstate highways. By the second century BC, the Nabatians had established a formal monarchy. The first clearly documented Nabatian king was Eritus I. His successors expanded Nabatian territory and turned Petra into the capital of a significant regional kingdom. At its greatest extent, Nabatian power reached north towards Damascus, west into

Starting point is 00:07:48 the Negev and Sinai deserts, and south along the caravan routes of the Arabian Peninsula. The important Nabatian city of Hegra in Saudi Arabia marked another major center of the kingdom. Hegra is also home to some fascinating stone-carved buildings, much like those in Petra. One of the kingdom's most important rulers was Eritus III, who reigned during the first century BC. He intervened in the affairs of neighboring Judea and briefly gained control of Damascus. These activities brought the Nabatians into increasing conflict with Rome. The Roman general Pompey reorganized much of the eastern Mediterranean after his campaigns in the 60s, BC. Although the Nabatian kingdom retained its independence, it increasingly operated within a Roman-dominated

Starting point is 00:08:34 political system. Nabatian rulers paid tribute at various times, cooperated with Roman campaigns, and attempted to preserve their autonomy through diplomacy. Petra reached the height of its prosperity from approximately the first century BC through the first century. Much of the monumental architecture that's visible today all dates from this period, particularly from the reign of Eritaceus the 4th from 9 BC until the year 40. Ertaeus IV called himself King of the Nabatians and the lover of his people. During his long reign, the kingdom enjoyed economic prosperity, urban growth, and an ambitious building program. Petra became a monumental capital that reflected both Nabatian traditions, as well as influences from Greek, Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Roman worlds.

Starting point is 00:09:25 The city's architect carved enormous facades directly into sandstone cliffs. The workers probably began near the top and moved down using platforms, ropes, scaffolding, picks, and chisels. Carving from the top prevented falling stone from damaging completed sections that were below. The facades often combine classical columns, triangular pediments, decorative urns, eagles, human figures, and symbols associated with death in the afterlife. Yet these designs were not simple imitations of Greek or Roman architecture. They were part of a distinctive Nabatian visual language that borrowed forms and rearranged them according to local tastes. The most famous monument in Petra is Al-Kazni, meaning the treasury. It appears dramatically at

Starting point is 00:10:13 the end of the Sikh, where its elaborate facade is carved into a tall cliff. It's literally the first thing you see when you enter Petra, and it is often the only thing that most people see because they don't go any further. If you've ever seen Indiana Jones in the Last Crusade, this is the image that you're probably familiar with. Despite its modern name, the treasury was probably not used to store money. It was most likely a royal tomb or funerary monument, possibly constructed during the reign of Eritais I. The name comes from a later legend that treasure had been hidden inside the stone urn at the top of the facade.

Starting point is 00:10:50 The treasury is heavily influenced by Greek architecture. This includes Corinthian columns, mythological figures, and a central round structure known as a tholos. The interior, however, is relatively plain. As with many structures in Petra, all of the effort was concentrated on the exterior rather than the interior. The precise identity of the person who was buried there remains unknown. Excavations around the monument have revealed additional burial chambers,

Starting point is 00:11:18 but archaeologists continue to debate its function, its dating, and its relationship to the Nabatian royal family. Petra contains hundreds of rock-cut tombs. Some have simple entrances while others possess enormous facades. The so-called royal tombs include the urn tomb, the silk tomb, Corinthian tomb, and the palace tomb. Their modern names are descriptive and do not establish who was buried in them. Not every major monument was a tomb. The city contained important freestanding buildings, including the Great Temple, the Temple of the Winged Lions, and Khasser al-Bint. Kasser al-Bint was one of Petra's principal religious buildings and may have been associated with the chief Nabatian deity, Dushara.

Starting point is 00:12:05 Petra could not have supported a large population without careful control of water. Rainfall was limited and highly irregular, but sudden storms could send flash floods through narrow valleys. The Nabatians constructed dams, reservoir, cisterns, and pipelines. They redirected flash floods away from inhabited areas while capturing runoff for later use. Channels carved along the sides of the Sikh, carried water into Petra, sometimes through ceramic pipes. The system supplied drinking water, public fountains, baths, agriculture, and possibly even ornamental pools. Water was not really a survival necessity. In a desert environment, fountains and gardens were displays of political power and wealth. In the year 106, following the death of the last Nebetean king, Rebell II, the Roman emperor Trajan annexed the kingdom.

Starting point is 00:12:55 The annexation appears to have occurred with relatively little fighting, although there are a few details surrounding it. Nabatian territory became the Roman province of Arabia Petra. Roman rule did not immediately destroy Nabatian culture, but when Emperor Hadron visited the city in the second century, it adopted the title, Hadriani Petra. Petra's decline was gradual and had several causes. Rome increasingly encouraged maritime trade through the Red Sea, allowing goods from Arabia, Arabia and India to travel by ship to Egyptian ports. This reduced the importance of overland caravan routes. Earthquakes repeatedly damaged Petra, a major earthquake in 363 damaged buildings and disrupted parts of the water system. Additional earthquakes struck the region during later centuries. Earthquake damage alone did not end urban life in Petra, but it compounded the

Starting point is 00:13:47 effects of declining trade, changing political structures, and the expense of maintaining the city's infrastructure. As the population decreased, fewer people were available to keep dams, channels, and public buildings in working order. Some residential areas were totally abandoned, while others remained occupied on a smaller scale. Petra was never totally abandoned. Some Bedouin people lived in Petra well into the 20th century, but the city ceased to be a major population center and was forgotten by the rest of the world. Petra was known through classical and biblical literature, but its exact condition remained largely unknown outside of the region for centuries. During the Crusades and later periods, only a small number of outsiders ever reached the site. In 1812, the Swiss explorer

Starting point is 00:14:35 Johann Ludwig Berghardt became the first modern European traveler to publish a detailed eyewitness account of Petra. Burkhart had studied Arabic and traveled in disguise as a Muslim merchant. Systematic archaeological work began in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and excavations expanded greatly after the creation of the independent kingdom of Jordan. Today, Petra is the most famous and visited tourist site in Jordan. Petra was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1985, and in 2007, Petra was selected through an international popular vote as one of the new seven wonders of the world. I've been to Petra on three separate occasions, and I highly recommend it to everyone. If you're there, I strongly suggest the Petra at Night experience

Starting point is 00:15:23 where you can walk the Sikh by candlelight and experience the treasury underneath the stars. There's still a lot we don't know about Petra and the people who live there. Archaeologists still debate the purpose of individual monuments, the identities of those buried in the monuments, the exact size of the population, and the organization of Nabatian society. Yet what survives makes one point unmistakable. Petra was not an isolated desert curiosity. It was one of the greatest commercial,

Starting point is 00:15:53 technological and cultural centers of the ancient Middle East. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Austin Otkin and Cameron Kiefer. My big thanks go to everyone who supports the show over on Patreon. Your support helps make this podcast possible. And I also want to remind everyone about the community groups on Facebook and Discord. That's where everything happens that's outside the podcast. And links to those are available in the show notes.

Starting point is 00:16:22 As always, if you leave a review on any major podcast, podcast app or in the above community groups, you two can have it read in the show.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The History of Petra

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