Petra, old city, focal point of a Bedouin realm in Greek and Roman times, the remains of which are in southwest Jordan. The city was based on a porch, penetrated from east to west by the Channel Mūsā (the Valley of Moses) — one of the spots where, as per custom, the Israelite chief Moses struck a stone and water spouted forward. The valley is encased by sandstone precipices veined with shades of red and purple differing to light yellow, and consequently Petra was considered by the nineteenth century English scriptural researcher John William Burgon a “rose-red city half ancient.” The cutting edge town of Watercourse Mūsā, arranged neighboring the old city, primarily serves the constant flow of travelers who keep on visiting the site.
The Greek name Petra (“Rock”) likely supplanted the scriptural name Sela. Stays from the Paleolithic and Neolithic time frames have been found at Petra, and Edomites are known to have involved the region around 1200 BCE. Hundreds of years after the fact the Nabataeans, a Middle Easterner clan, involved it and made it the capital of their realm. In 312 BCE the district was gone after by Seleucid powers, who neglected to hold onto the city. Under Nabataean rule, Petra flourished as a focal point of the zest exchange that elaborate such unique domains as China, Egypt, Greece, and India, and the city’s populace expanded to somewhere in the range of 10,000 and 30,000.
At the point when the Nabataeans were crushed by the Romans in 106 CE, Petra turned out to be important for the Roman region of Arabia yet kept on prospering until changing shipping lanes caused its steady business decline. After a tremor (not the first) harmed the city in 551, huge residence appears to have stopped. The Islamic attack happened in the seventh hundred years, and a Crusader station is proof of movement there in the twelfth hundred years. After the Campaigns the city was obscure toward the Western world until it was rediscovered by the Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt in 1812.
Unearthing from 1958 for the English School of Antiquarianism in Jerusalem and, later, the American Focal point of Oriental Exploration added significantly to information on Petra. The remains are generally drawn closer from the east by a tight canyon known as the Siq (Channel Al-Sīq). Among the primary locales saw from the Siq is the Khaznah (“Depository”), which is really an enormous burial chamber. Al-Dayr (“the Cloister”) is one of Petra’s most popular stone cut landmarks; it is an incomplete burial place exterior that during Byzantine times was utilized as a congregation. Large numbers of the burial chambers of Petra have elaborate exteriors and are presently utilized as homes. The High Spot of Penance, a cultic raised area dating from scriptural times, is a very much protected site. To help the old city’s huge populace, its occupants kept a broad hydrological framework, including dams, storages, rock-cut water channels, and ceramic lines. Unearthing started in 1993 uncovered a few additional sanctuaries and landmarks that give knowledge into the political, social, and strict customs of the old city. The vestiges are helpless against floods and other regular peculiarities, and expanded vacationer traffic has likewise harmed the landmarks. In 1985 Petra was assigned an UNESCO World Legacy site. See likewise Iranian craftsmanship and design: Petra and Palmyra.
