Petra Nemcova
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 ...
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?
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