Two thousand years ago, it was the capital of a powerful trading empire. Now archaeologists are piecing together a more complete picture of Jordan's compelling rock city
Posted on 12/20/2007 1:31:35 PM PST by SunkenCiv
[A]archaeologists are discovering that ancient Petra was a sprawling city of lush gardens and pleasant fountains, enormous temples and luxurious Roman-style villas. An ingenious water supply system allowed Petrans not just to drink and bathe, but to grow wheat, cultivate fruit, make wine and stroll in the shade of tall trees... And scholars now know that Petra thrived for nearly 1,000 years... Constructed during the first century B.C. and the first century A.D., it included a 600-seat theater, a triple colonnade, an enormous paved courtyard and vaulted rooms underneath. Artifacts found at the site -- from tiny Nabatean coins to chunks of statues -- number in the hundreds of thousands... No one knows where the Nabateans came from. Around 400 B.C., the Arab tribe swept into the mountainous region nestled between the Sinai and Arabian peninsulas and the Mediterranean Sea... The Nabateans developed a writing system -- ultimately the basis of written Arabic -- though the inscriptions they left in Petra and elsewhere are mostly names of people and places and are not particularly revealing of their beliefs, history or daily lives... By 100 B.C., the tribe had a king, vast wealth and a rapidly expanding capital city... Rome annexed Nabatea in A.D. 106, apparently without a fight... At its peak, Petra's population was about 30,000, an astonishing density made possible in the arid climate by clever engineering. Petrans carved channels through solid rock, gathering winter rains into hundreds of vast cisterns for use in the dry summers. Many are still used today by the Bedouin... on May 19, A.D. 363, a massive earthquake and a powerful aftershock rumbled through the area. A Jerusalem bishop noted in a letter that "nearly half" of Petra was destroyed by the seismic shock.
(Excerpt) Read more at smithsonianmag.com ...
Two thousand years ago, it was the capital of a powerful trading empire. Now archaeologists are piecing together a more complete picture of Jordan's compelling rock city
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[sigh]
We’ve been there!!!! THe most MAGNIFCENT place I’ve ever seen. It’s not a HOLY place, but it is MAGNIFICENT!!
So, did they find the Holy Grail? ;-)
“He did not choose wisely”
I had read many, many years ago, that at END TIMES there will be 250,000 JEWS in PETRA....but I can find NOTHING and NO ONE who has ever heard that!! It was one reason why I wanted to see it....I had NO idea what it looked like.
Yup...I do.
I’ve not been there, but had seen plenty of photos in the past. I was struck by the sheer scale of “The Treasury” (as it used to be called) as shown in the above pic.
OMG!! And the walls inside are PERFECTLY CUT...and the room is HUGE! ANd the CITY IS HUGE also!! MANY, MANY buildings...and you can see (sp?) Jabaal Aaron gleaming white on a mountain top.
...let’s see... Archaeology, Smithsonian, Discover? (you used to), what else? :’D
Daniel 11:40-45 specifically 11:41
Matthew 24:15-18, (Mark 13, Luke 21)
Revelation 12:6,14,17
from that link:
“the 4,000-year-old King’s Highway”
That’s east of the era of the Cities of the Plain, four of which sites are under water now (Bela a.k.a. Zoar remained after the disaster; and ignoring Babedh-Dhra, which has been claimed by some to be either S or G).
I have this same picture, I took it myself when I was there. I lived in Jordan for a couple of years.
Science News, National Geo, National Review...
Thanks!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1942465/posts?page=20#20
Here’s a big fave, taken of a guy lounging on top of that urn-like decoration on the front of “The Treasury”:
http://www3.nationalgeographic.com/places/images/photos/photo_lg_jordan.jpg
I think Petra is where the Jews will hide out from the Anti-Christ during the Tribulations. They could survive there very comfortably.
The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God
The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God
I would LOVE to go there. I saw a documentary on Petra on the Discovery Channel and it was awesome! I'm amazed at how they have built into the rock walls. It could sustain the Jews during the Tribulations. That's the only place that I can think of that the Jews will be safe from the Anti-Christ. The only way in could easily be shut up by an explosion, or since God's looking out for His chosen, He might do it with an earthquake! :o)
WOW!! THANKS!!!!!! EVERYONE needs to see PETRA!
A reference is needed, like the man sitting on the urn to fully appreciate the size of this place.
That’s probably what they were going for. One of the myths made up by the later Bedouins was that the big urn thing was filled with treasure. :’) Hard to explain how the treasure got inside, since it’s carved of the living rock.
My 6th grader was assigned the country of Jordan to present to her class. We really enjoyed learning about all the history and Biblical significance within this Kingdom. We also both really would love to visit there some day.
When did you go there? Is it safe?
We read somewhere that you could sleep out there in the desert, although I’d probably need to be smoking something to partake in something risky like that.
People still live out there in those caves, don’t they?
That Petra survived the tsunami that hit Banda Ache.
THANKS!!! Way above my paygrade to find the passages about the Jews going to Petra in END TIMES. I guess I like things spelled out to me..>:)
Really! Thanks for the info.
I was turned on to Petra as a child by a writer named Richard Halliburton who was a famous explorer cum archeologist who wrote a lot of pop archeology stuff in the 30s and 40s.
I think Halliburton was the prototype for Indiana Jones, complete with the hat.
We went to Jerash, another ancient city in Jordan, AMMAN, which in some places looked like Beverly Hills, and then to Petra!! We stayed at the entrance of the Sicq at The Movenpick Hotel...VERY nice.....and Petra was really UNBELIEVABLE!!
At the time I felt very safe, not one inkling on being un-safe and I am the BIGGEST SCAREDY CAT you've ever seen.
The same Palestinian ina Mercedes took us to the border of Jordan and then picked us back up again on our way back to Israel and I did get very concerned because he was taking us a different route than the way we have gone, and I said something to my husband and the Orthodox Jewish man and he yelled something and the driver said he was just taking us past where Pope JP II had just stayed!!
We can not wait to go back.
Does that make it Petra or somewhere else?
I, too, have that same picture.....it takes your BREATH away when it first comes into view....it’s UNBELIEVABLE!
What did you do in Jordan?
HOW and WHY do they get Petra as being this place when there is NO direct reference to Petra??? I’m trying to wrap my mind around how everyone zeros in on Petra, but those verses don’t really DESCRIBE Petra....or do they?
Someplace else. Petra’s dates are short by more than 1000 years.
ooooh goood one!
thanks.
Cement mortar and plaster played an important role in Nabataean life. They used this essential technology from their very earliest years in the desert. Without their special knowledge of cement, the Nabataeans would never have conquered the desert, and would never have risen to the status of a civilization.
The Nabataeans were experts at collecting water and storing it in underground cisterns. All along their caravan routes, secret water collection systems collected water and stored it for later use. The ancient historian Diodorus noted:
"For in the waterless region, as it is called, they have dug wells at convenient intervals and have kept the knowledge of them from people of all other nations, and so they retreat in a body into this region out of danger. For since they themselves know about the places of hidden water and open them up, they have for their use drinking water in abundance." (II.48.2)
Petra was actually in Phuket and not Banda Aceh. Her story of survival was quite remarkable.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/more/12/28/nemcova.tsunami/
Thanks. I never knew about these water systems. I wonder how many are lost and forgotten underground?
Thanks for these pics. A couple of years ago we had a special exhibit from Petra at Calvin College. Lots of zodiacal stuff from the Hellenistic and Roman periods, monumental sculpture, all very cool. As you said, they were good at water management. I would think that they must have been at least as good at waste disposal (getting rid of sewage, basically), if indeed 30,000 people were living there. Sounds like a parallel can be drawn with Los Angeles — an artificial oasis (of sorts) in the desert, made possible through importation of water from a wide area surrounding the town.
those get the rocks moving.
jUST VISITED THOSE THREE PLACES IN 2 DAYS.
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