Massive New Monument Found in Petra

nationalgeographic.com ^ | 06-08-2016 | By Kristin Romey

[Red Badger]

PinGGG!.............................

[sparklite2]

One of the most fascinating places on the planet.

[SatinDoll]

Its description could be a market place.

[SunkenCiv]

Hey, nice pics! See also the earlier topic. Thanks Red Badger.

[rktman]

No worries. Isis/is/isil has plans for all those historic items. You didn’t build that. Moose-ham-head built that. If not............BOOM!

[publius911]

Bookmark

[Zeppo]

Its description could be a market place.

Or a double-wide Olympic swimming pool.

[Red Badger]

I’m thinking maybe a temple of some sort, that was abandoned or demolished after Christianity took root..........................

[TXnMA]

Construction shack -- torn down after the real construction work was finished... '-)

[Red Badger]

It looks like the outline of a temple and courtyard. Perhaps to some pagan moon god..................hmmmm, who could that be?......................

[TXnMA]

FWIW, the "Rose-red" Petra area seriously needs a good LiDAR overflight...

[Monkey Face]

Awesome, as usual! Thanks for the ping!

[gleeaikin]

Perhaps it was the place where caravans keep their livestock enclosed along with guest houses and supply buildings. Why does every find always have to be religious/ceremonial?

[blam]

"Why does every find always have to be religious/ceremonial?"

Ditto.

A bingo hall, maybe?

[Red Badger]

I’ve often wondered that as well, but this structure and layout is too precise and well planned for a stable and stockyards............

[Red Badger]

Plus, if you look closely at the pic on the left, you will see that it is a series of raised platforms, like stepped plains, so the camel theory is kind of a no go...............

[Red Badger]

..........and there are other known temple structures nearby, some Christian, some not...................

[Red Badger]

Also note that the entire layout is facing slightly southeast, if you assume that the ‘front’ of the structure is the wide open area between the smaller square and the cliffs. That would indicate to me that it was made to face the rising sun. I don’t know what precise direction the sun rises at that location on the spring equinox or the summer solstice, but I’d bet it’s pretty close to that layout’s orientation.......................

[TXnMA]

Couldn't resist "playing with" the image -- and doing a little wild speculation.

So -- I rotated the image until it was orthogonal on the page, and then did a little spatial filtering to enhance linear features. The white dashed lines are what linear features I think I can see on the enhanced image.

Then -- just for grins -- I overlaid transparent, colored polygons where I speculate that there were four (4) stacked (but, not necessarily concentric) raised mounds or platforms -- including a staircase from the second to the third level...

...and, you really don't want to know my wild-@$$3d theory on the why it was built -- and the function it served... '-)