Petra, the pink city of eternity, was rediscovered 200 years ago

photo: Berthold Werner

Petra/Prague - The archaeological pearl of Jordan, the rock city of Petra, has captured the hearts of many visitors with its beauty and veil of mystery. According to the poet "the pink city, almost as old as time itself", it is not strictly a rock city, but rather some kind of cemetery, oasis, or marketplace, and today primarily a tourist destination. Petra was rediscovered for Western civilization 200 years ago, on August 22, 1812, by the Swiss traveler and Orientalist Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, disguised as a Muslim pilgrim.
    Petra, which means stone in ancient Greek, has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1985 and was included among the seven new wonders of the world in July 2007.
    The city reached the peak of its development over about 700 years, from the 3rd century BC to the 4th century AD, when it was the metropolis of the nomadic Nabataeans. At that time, merchant caravans carrying incense from Arabia, Indian spices, and Chinese silk would stop here. However, the site was simultaneously very well concealed, and few travelers were aware of it. A turning point in the city's history came in AD 106 when it was incorporated into the Roman Empire. Petra expanded with baths, a forum, a theater, and other elements of Roman culture. At that time, around 40,000 people lived here, and most of the preserved buildings date back to this period.
    Over time, however, the significance of the city began to decline, which was related to trade. The center of the exchange of goods became the Syrian Palmyra northeast of Damascus, which shifted trade routes away from Petra. After the Crusades, the city effectively disappeared from the view of Western civilization; the last to likely see it was the Mamluk sultan Baybars in June 1276. Petra then fell into oblivion for half a millennium, its secrets guarded only by the Bedouins who lived in the rock dwellings.
    It was not until 1812 that a certain Sheikh Ibráhím ibn Abdalláh, whose real name was Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, heard about the existence of the mysterious city. The later-famous Swiss researcher, posing as a Muslim trader of Indian origin, honed his Arabic and knowledge of the Quran to such an extent during his two-year stay in Syrian Aleppo (now Halab) that he became a recognized local authority.
    The then-under-thirty Burckhardt concocted a story that he promised to sacrifice a goat to the Old Testament prophet Aaron (brother of Moses) at his tomb on Jabal Harun (Mount Aaron) in Petra. This compelled him to enter the city, where he secretly took sketches and notes. Petra was rediscovered, and Burckhardt's travelogue "Travels in Syria and the Holy Land" caused a sensation in 1822.
    However, Burckhardt did not live to see this publication. The traveler, who entered the history of Egyptology with the discovery of Abu Simbel and who was probably the first European to enter Mecca, died at the age of 32 in 1817 in Cairo.
    After that, painters, poets, and the first archaeologists began to arrive, and the first images from Petra sparked a literal "Oriental fever". In 1929, a professional survey of the site began.
    The Moravian Orientalist and traveler Alois Musil, nicknamed "the Czech Lawrence of Arabia", also contributed to clarifying the history and culture of the Nabataeans. Musil visited Petra as the first Czech and published a four-part description of Petra and its surroundings under the title "Arabia Petraea" in 1907.
    Petra has the shape of an amphitheater, measuring about a kilometer from east to west and half a kilometer from north to south. The city features influences from various styles, including Egyptian, Greek, and Roman styles.
    When Petra is mentioned, the massive facade of the temple, namely the treasury of Al-Khazneh, which is likely the resting place of one of the last rulers of the Nabataean Empire, comes to mind. The facade, over 40 meters high, is adorned at the bottom with six columns with Corinthian capitals and at the top with six smaller ones and a central cylindrical small tower, crowned with a funerary urn. The treasury was carved, likely between 100 BC and 200 AD.
    The treasury can be found immediately after exiting the mystical gorge of Siq, which is the gateway to Petra. It is about 1200 meters long and varies in width from two to five meters. In some places, water channels can be seen, which served as water supply lines to the city.
    From the treasury of Al-Khazneh, a path leads to a basin surrounded by sandstone giants, into which thousands of lavish and simple graves have been carved. In the Džabal Chubta massif on the eastern side of the basin, there are rock tombs of kings, while on the opposite western side of the basin stands the largest Nabataean structure, the monastery of Deir. Its facade, 45 meters high and 50 meters wide, resembles the treasury of Al-Khazneh. The monastery was carved into the rock approximately in the first century AD and was originally intended to serve as a tomb. However, there are many other interesting structures in the area.
    The facade of the treasury of Al-Khazneh has captivated many filmmakers, who placed even just one scene from the entire film into this mystical rock passage. Evidence of this is, for example, Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.