Petra
Rose colored sandstone
carved into an ancient city
Petra, (Petraea), in south west Jordan, is the legendary Mosera,
location of the tomb of Aaron, brother of Moses, and of Mount Hor.
The ancient city was reached through a narrow, hidden passage.
The protected location was used to advantage since early times,
but Petra became important around 300 BC
as a trading center of the Nabatean culture,
a largely nomadic Arab people.
Some of the inhabitants carved their tombs
into the beautiful sandstone, the results are stunning.
(left) Petra: Cliffs of the Sik, by Harry Fenn, 1881
The narrow entrance to Petra,
by David Roberts, 1839.
Johann Burckhardt (Switzerland) was the first European to visit Petra, in 1812. He was a professional explorer, paid by an English foundation, who presented himself as a Moslem to gain access to many places forbidden to foreigners. He knew from Roman texts that Petra was near the Tomb of Aaron so he pretended a wish to sacrifice a goat at the tomb, a well known ritual, to cover his real purpose.
Excerpted from:
Travels in Syria and the Holy Land
by Johann Burckhardt
I hired a guide at Eldjy, to conduct me to Aaron's tomb, and paid him
with a pair of old horse-shoes. He carried the goat, and gave me a skin
of water to carry, as he knew that there was no water in the Wady below.
Soon the valley they traveled began to narrow, the rocks changed from limestone to sandstone, and dark rectangles began to appear in the hillsides above them - tombs.
Entrance to Petra today - the Siq (Sik).
Photograph by Emilio, CreativeCommons.
About three hundred paces along the valley, which
is in this part about one hundred and fifty feet in breadth, is a spot where the valley
seemed to be entirely closed by high rocks. Upon a nearer approach,
I perceived a chasm about fifteen or twenty feet in breadth, through
which the rivulet flows westwards. The precipices on either side are about eighty feet in height, in many places the opening between
them at top is less than at bottom, and the sky is not visible from
below.
The arch at the entrance,
by David Roberts, 1839.
About fifty paces below the entrance a bridge of one arch
thrown over the top of the chasm is still entire. Some remains
of antiquities might perhaps be found on the top of the rocks near the
bridge, but my guide assured me that nobody had ever been able to climb up the
rocks to the bridge, which was therefore unanimously declared to be the
work of genii.
I saw in several places small niches cut in the rock, some
of which were single, in other places there were three or four together,
without any regularity. Some are mere holes, others have short pilasters
on both sides, they vary in size from ten inches to four or five feet in
height, and in some of them the bases of statues are still visible. We
passed several chasms between perpendicular rocks, by which some tributary streams from the south side of
the Syk empty themselves into the river. I did not enter any of them,
but I saw that they were thickly overgrown with Defle trees. My guide
told me that no antiquities existed in these valleys. The bottom
of the Syk itself is at present covered with large stones, brought down
by the torrent, and it appears to be several feet higher than its
ancient level, at least towards its western end.
El Khasne, first sight of Petra,
(left) by John Woodward, 1881,
(right) by David Roberts, 1839.
We came to a place where the
passage opens, and where the bed of another stream coming from the south
joins the Syk. On the side of the perpendicular rock, directly opposite
to the issue of the trail, an excavated mausoleum came in view,
the situation and beauty of which are calculated to make an
extraordinary impression upon the traveler, after having traversed for
nearly half an hour such a gloomy and almost subterraneous passage as I
have described. It is one of the most elegant remains of antiquity, and on a closer examination I found it to be
a work of immense labor.
Petra, by David Roberts, 1839.
Royal tombs at Petra.
The Urn Tomb
Tomb known as the Monastery.
by David Roberts, 1839.
Petra - SandStone tombs
Photograph by Etan J. Tal, CreativeCommons
The theater at Petra, by Laborde.
Here to the left is a
theatre cut entirely out of the rock, with all its benches. It may be
capable of containing about three thousand spectators. Its' area is now
filled up with gravel, which the winter storms bring down.
The Qasr el Bint Palace.
In my way I
had entered several sepulchers, to the surprise of my guide, but when he
saw me turn out of the footpath towards the Kaszr (Qasr), he exclaimed: "I see
now clearly that you are an infidel, who has some particular business
among the ruins of the city of your forefathers. Depend upon it
that we shall not suffer you to take out a single para of all the
treasures hidden there, for they are in our territory, and belong to
us."
I replied that it was mere curiosity which prompted me to look at
the ancient works, and that I had no other view in coming here than to
sacrifice to Aaron.
He was not easily persuaded. The Arabs believe
that it is sufficient for a true magician to have seen and observed the
spot where treasures are hidden in order to be
able afterwards, at his ease, to order it to follow him through the air to
whatever place he pleases, and to command the guardian of the treasure to
set the whole before him.
I did not
think it prudent to irritate my guide by too close an inspection of the
palace as it might have led him to declare, on our return, his belief
that I had found treasures. That might have led to the detection of my journal, which would most certainly
have been taken from me as a book of magic. "Maou delayl" (He has indications of treasure with him) is an expression I
have heard a hundred times.
The Khazneh (Khasne), a large building
near the Siq entrance, painting by Linant.
Great must have been the opulence
of a city which could dedicate such monuments to the memory of its
rulers. The antiquities of Petra will be found to rank among the most curious
remains of ancient art.
Excerpted from:
Travels in Syria and the Holy Land
by Johann Ludwig (Louis) Burckhardt
Published by the Association for promoting the
discovery of the interior parts of Africa, 1822.
etext from Project Gutenberg.
Petra was abandoned soon after 200 AD. Perhaps the city was attacked,
perhaps the water source dried for a time, or perhaps caravan routes shifted -
the sudden end of Petra has never been explained.
And so it sat, crumbling in the sun over the centuries.
Petra's location was lost to the outside world
until Johann Burckhardt published his account.
Ancient Mystery . info
Introduction, Aborigine paintings
The hidden jewel: Petra
The Roman oracle at Baalbek
Anomalous Gobekli Tepe
Music, Myth and Number in Ancient Sumer (text).
The Ancients knew Egypt as the very source of Mystery.
There are countless beautiful 19th century images
of ancient Egypt in Ascending Passage,
with information and links to three websites and 75 pages
of architecture, art and secrets,
covering the length of Ancient Egypt and a bit beyond.
Ascending Passage
PYMD.com
Egypt's Age of Pyramids
