Through a narrow canyon just wide enough for two camels to pass side by side — the Siq, a kilometre-long slot through rose-red sandstone walls that tower 200 metres overhead — you emerge suddenly into the most dramatic single view in the ancient world. The Treasury (Al-Khazneh) stands before you in its full 40-metre height: an intricate façade of columns, pediments, and carved figures cut directly from the cliff face in a colour that shifts from pink to gold as the Jordanian sun moves across it. Petra is one of the ancient world’s most extraordinary human achievements — a city built not on the landscape but into it, a capital of empire carved from sandstone that was the crossroads of the ancient world’s most important trade routes.
The Nabataeans: The Civilisation That Built Petra
Petra was built by the Nabataeans — a formerly nomadic Arab people who settled in what is now southern Jordan around the 4th century BCE and developed, with extraordinary speed, into one of the ancient world’s most sophisticated commercial civilisations. The Nabataeans controlled the incense trade routes between Arabia and the Mediterranean world: the frankincense and myrrh that were essential to religious ceremonies throughout the ancient Mediterranean world — from Egyptian embalming to Roman religious ritual — passed through Nabataean territory, making Petra one of the ancient world’s most strategically critical commercial centres.
At its height (roughly 50 BCE to 100 CE), the Nabataean Kingdom encompassed modern Jordan, southern Syria, the Negev Desert, and the Sinai Peninsula. Petra, the capital, had a population estimated at 20,000-30,000 — an extraordinary concentration of people in a desert location, sustained by one of the ancient world’s most sophisticated water management systems. The Nabataeans engineered ceramic pipes, cisterns, and channels that collected and stored rainwater with such efficiency that Petra could sustain its large population in a region that receives less than 150mm of annual rainfall.
The Architecture: Carving a City from Living Rock
Petra’s most distinctive architectural achievement is the scale and sophistication of its rock-cut monuments — facades, tombs, temples, and civic buildings cut directly from the sandstone cliffs that surround the city’s central valley. The Nabataeans did not build Petra’s monuments from quarried stone — they removed stone from the cliff faces to reveal the monuments within, working from the top downward. This technique produced the characteristic unfinished appearance of many Petran facades — the upper portions complete and detailed, the lower portions more roughly worked or cut away.
The most famous monuments include:
- The Treasury (Al-Khazneh): Petra’s most photographed and iconic monument — a 40-metre-high facade combining Hellenistic, Egyptian, and Nabataean architectural elements. Despite its popular name, it was not a treasury but probably a royal tomb, possibly for the Nabataean king Aretas IV (9 BCE-40 CE). The urn at the top was long believed by Bedouin to contain hidden treasure — it is riddled with bullet holes from generations of hopeful shooters.
- The Monastery (Ad-Deir): Petra’s largest monument — at 47 metres high and 48 metres wide, larger than the Treasury — accessible via 800 steps carved from the cliff. Its function is uncertain; it may have been a temple, later adapted for Christian worship in the Byzantine period.
- The Royal Tombs: Four monumental tomb facades cut into the eastern cliff face — the Urn Tomb, Silk Tomb, Corinthian Tomb, and Palace Tomb — demonstrating the full range of Nabataean architectural ambition.
- The Colonnaded Street: The main thoroughfare of the city’s urban centre, once lined with columns and shops in the pattern of a standard Hellenistic city.
The Lost City: How Petra Disappeared for 1,000 Years
Petra’s decline began after the Roman annexation of the Nabataean Kingdom in 106 CE, when the trade routes that had sustained the city shifted to the north. A catastrophic earthquake in 363 CE severely damaged much of the city’s infrastructure. By the 7th century, the Arab conquest brought new political realities, and Petra gradually lost population. By the Crusader period (12th century), only a small Bedouin community maintained knowledge of the city’s location. To the Western world, Petra had effectively ceased to exist.
The city’s “rediscovery” occurred in 1812 when Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt — disguised as an Arab and claiming a desire to make sacrifices at the tomb of Aaron — persuaded a local guide to lead him to the hidden city. His subsequent account introduced Petra to the Western world. The Romantic poet John William Burgon won a poetry prize at Oxford in 1845 with a poem describing Petra as “a rose-red city, half as old as time” — a description that has never been bettered, and has defined how the Western imagination has understood Petra ever since.
Practical Guide: Visiting Petra
- Getting there: The nearest city is Wadi Musa, approximately 3 hours by road from Amman or Aqaba. Petra itself is accessed on foot (or by horse, carriage, or donkey) from the Petra visitor centre through the Siq.
- Time required: One day is the minimum; two days allows the Monastery (a 2-hour hike from the city centre) and the High Place of Sacrifice trail. Three days reveals Petra’s full extent.
- Tickets: 1-day ticket approximately JD50 ($70 USD); 2-day ticket JD55; 3-day JD60. Jordanian residents and those staying in Wadi Musa pay significantly less.
- Petra by Night: On Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings, the Siq and Treasury are lit by 1,500 candles for a 2-hour candlelit walk — one of the world’s great atmospheric experiences.
- Best time to visit: March-April and October-November for comfortable temperatures. Summer (June-August) is extremely hot; winter (December-February) can be cold with occasional rain.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Petra safe to visit?
Yes. Jordan is one of the safest countries in the Middle East and Petra is visited by hundreds of thousands of international tourists annually. The site itself is well managed and secure. Check current government travel advisories for Jordan, which remain broadly positive for tourism despite regional tensions.
How old is Petra?
The site was occupied from prehistoric times, but the rock-cut monuments for which Petra is famous were created primarily between the 4th century BCE and the 2nd century CE — making the oldest monuments approximately 2,400 years old. The Treasury and most of the major tombs date to the 1st century BCE to 1st century CE at the height of Nabataean power.
Petra is proof that the ancient world was never primitive — it was brilliant, ambitious, and capable of extraordinary beauty. Explore more art and architecture on CulturalDiaries.