Petra was built in the heart of a hidden valley. The city is completely surrounded by high mountain ranges and canyons, which only
allow direct access to the city through a fault that is open in the rock of the mountain range
that is known as the Siq. This fault, which is the only direct and simple entrance to the city, takes
you to a small valley that is completely surrounded by huge mountain ranges that are between 200
and 400 meters high. Access to the city is preferably through a single point, the
Siq, an open fault in the mountain range that can narrow up to 2 meters in width and
can exceed 100 meters in height. The entrance to the Siq used to have a stone
arch that was built by the Nabataeans into the side walls of the Siq. From this point you enter the canyon, the
fault, which, as I have said, can reach several hundred meters high and
only two or three meters wide. Along the way you can find small reliefs and
stone constructions made by the Nabataeans as well as some tombs and
altars dedicated to the Nabataean gods. And most importantly, you can find hydraulic
constructions. If you look up you will see that the canyon is filled
with clay pipes embedded in the rock, and if you look down you will see all the channels carved
into the stone wall. All the water that flowed through these pipes was clean and potable water, because
all the leaves and earth that it could have ended up at the bottom of these tanks that
were periodically placed along the pipeline. This spectacular road to the archaeological
site of Petra. Walking through this place makes you feel
like you are in another world, it is a very surreal experience. So you continue walking through the Siq for
a kilometer and a half ... until suddenly ... You find Petra. You come across an extraordinary sight, the
facade of this tomb that is probably the most famous
and celebrated image of the city of Petra. The facade of the tomb was carefully placed
just outside the Siq so that anyone who enters Petra will be in awe and fascinated
by this visual punchline that stretches before their eyes. And you just have to walk a few more meters
to the end, where you will finally find the Treasure. This facade is known as "Al'Khazne" which
means treasure, because the Bedouins, nomadic tribes of the desert, thought that
the center urn was full of gold coins, they made all the bullets that are seen in
the rock trying to obtain everything the gold within. Of course today we know that it is completely
solid rock. This treasure is actually the facade of the tomb of a Nabataean king named Aretas
III, who lived in the 1st century BC. This facade is built with a very peculiar
artistic style, typical of the Nabataeans, which is a unique combination between Nabatean
art and Hellenistic art, when you analyze the facade it seems as if you are in front of a Hellenistic
building of the eastern Mediterranean from the 2nd century before of Christ, however, there
are some details such as the capitals of the columns that have a Nabataean order with these strange
protruding horns and that are typical of Nabataean art, the relief of the divinity that is in the
center of the niche is very likely that it is an image of the Nabatean god Dushara fused with the
Egyptian goddess Isis, as well as some other details of the ornamentation such as the split pediment,
which give these buildings of Petra a completely unique flavor . One of the most interesting things
about the facade of the treasure is that it allows us to perfectly discern how the Nabataeans built
these types of buildings, if you look at the sides of the facade right next to the columns there are
small holes carved in the rock that They correspond to the wooden scaffolding
from which the artisans literally carved and sculpted the tomb into the cliff. Each Nabatean tomb, each tomb in Petra is
completely dug from top to bottom in the stone of the
cliffs and mountains that surround the city, and you can appreciate it quite well here,
we have some tombs that were left unfinished for uncertain reasons, we see the part carved
above with some stairs that is the upper part of the facade of a Nabataean tomb that
began to be carved in Petra. If the craftsmen had continued carving the lower part of the
facade and then the interior of the tomb they would have obtained a result similar to this. This also shows us the extraordinary mastery
of Nabatean artisans, if you were to build a
tomb made of granite or limestone marble blocks and you make a mistake while sculpting the
only thing you would have to do is replace that block with a new one, but when you are carving
and sculpting from top to bottom a whole mountain, the whole cliff is the marble block and it cannot
be replaced if there is some mistake like breaking the arm of a statue, there is nothing
to do we cannot change the piece for a new one then the Nabataean artists had to carve their
entire tombs without making a single mistake, because any mistake they made
would stay there forever, and in the case of Petra there are hundreds
of tombs carved by this people into the cliffs. Another interesting feature of the facade
of the treasure is that the craftsmen who carved it, excavated deep into the rock in an exceptional
way. Normally, as we will see in the rest of the tombs of
Petra, the tombs are at surface level. It was much more expensive to carve this type
of frame that surrounds the tomb of King Aretas III, but in carving this huge frame the craftsmen
left the tomb under the surface of the cliff, and thus,
when the water runs down the cliff, it drips out. without touching the facade of the treasure,
and thus the facade is protected from the rain and water that runs through the walls,
and from the wind that hits strongly through the narrow Siq. And that is the reason why this tomb of King
Aretas III is by far the best preserved in the entire
city of Petra. Welcome to the archaeological site of Petra. There is a lot to see, so join us to see this incredible
and impressive city. Once you have passed the facade of the tomb
and continue your way to the right you will reach the heart of the city, where you will find an
endless series of tombs. Some of them have several levels, huge underground warehouses,
and huge chambers. Facades that rise tens of meters above the surface, these are the
royal tombs, the tombs of the kings of Petra built on the cliffs of the city on a scale
even larger than the treasure, however, the lack of a framework within Cliff
like that of the treasure has caused the deterioration of these tombs and
they are not preserved as well as the treasure. But if you look the other way you still find
on each cliff of each mountain that surrounds Petra an endless succession
of tombs, much smaller and humble than the great constructions of the Nabataean
kings, most of them only have a small facade with stairs or with these battlements
that are typical of Nabatean art. Some others are just simple holes in the rock,
but wherever you turn in the city of Petra, you will find that you
are in a huge cemetery. Inside the tombs there are many cavities,
many niches, there were spaces in each tomb for several
people, up to dozens of them, and that has to do with the fact that many members of a family were
buried in Nabataean tombs. All of these tombs were carved to the same
level of detail as the treasure, but they have not been very well preserved. Although contemplating the interior is very
spectacular. Look at this huge royal tomb, the way the
corners are perfectly carved tells us again about the
mastery these people had in carving the rock. This is the inside of the tomb. Also look at the ceiling and the walls, thanks to how smooth it is carved you can
clearly see the grain of the sandstone. There could be people from many different
places who were buried in these tombs, so each of them had an inscription with the
name of the person buried there. But there is more to Petra than just tombs,
if you continue walking through the heart of Petra you will find a theater, but this
is not just any theater like those made in ancient Greece, this theater,
like the tombs, is completely carved on the rock and originally
had capacity for about 3000 spectators, but in Roman times it was
expanded to accommodate about 8000 people. And although this one in front of you is the
typical Greek-inspired theater carved out of a hillside, you can see another
succession of tombs around the theater. The center of the city, the heart of Petra,
is a relatively small tract of land that is completely surrounded by mountains. This was the only place where there were no
tombs, to the right on the side of this hill were houses,
many of them built in Roman times with mosaics and frescoes, and to the left, a few
public buildings. This building is a kind of combination between temple and palace,
we have a sacred enclosure delimited by these walls, we have a cella, the central room that Greek
and Roman temples normally have, and then at the back of the temple, at the top from that
second flight of stairs, instead of having a space for the statue of the god,
we find a kind of small theater for meetings. So although it looks like a sacred building,
this place probably also had the purpose of public meetings of the
kings with their advisers. Next to this kind of temple there is another building that is
not a tomb and that we know was a temple dedicated to a god. Dushara, the god of the mountain, this temple
follows the canons of Roman architecture has a central cella a portico adorned with
large columns probably of Nabataean order imitating a Roman temple, this building
along with the houses and some other buildings on this other side The valley,
such as the Nymphaeum and the great temple of Dushara, are the only civil constructions that have
been found in Petra, yet there are thousands of tombs for tens of thousands
of ancient people. Completely on the other side of Petra, to
the northwest of the city, is another extraordinary building. But getting to this building is not easy, as this building is on the highest part of
a huge mountain. The road is steep, long, and very rocky, and you have the strong rays of the sun hitting
you and millions of flies and vendors chasing you. But after about 40 minutes of intense walking
you finally arrive. The Ad-Deir, also known as the Monastery,
because it was used as a monastery in Byzantine times , when there were still people inhabiting
Petra before it was definitely abandoned in the 6th century, this tomb is
one of the largest in Petra, but it is completely different from the rest. In the first place, it is not located with
the other tombs, which are all in the valley, in a place of relatively easy access, because
the living worshiped the dead so the tombs had to be easily accessible, but
the Monastery is almost at one kilometer from the center of Petra, and it is the only tomb that is located
on top of a mountain, very difficult to reach. And if that wasn't strange enough, we also
know that all the rock that was in front of the entrance to the tomb was excavated
to create a kind of small amphitheater where hundreds of people could fit, and it
is the only tomb in Petra where we see something like this, and finally an inscription was found saying that a banquet
had been held there in honor of the god Obodas, which is quite strange because there
is no god named Obodas in the entire Petra complex , but there is a king named Obodas who lived
at the beginning of the 1st century BC, and who was one of the most important kings
of the Nabataeans. So maybe that king was turned into a god and banquets were held at his tomb
in honor of the deified King Obodas, but it turns out that we know that King Obodas's tomb was not in
Petra, but in a Nabataean city located in the desert of Negev. So what was happening in the Monastery? What was this place This has to do with Petra's possible purpose. It seems that due to some inscriptions the
Nabataeans were not actually buried in the city where they lived, but in one of the
five holy cities that were in the Nabataean kingdom, so even though the Nabataean kingdom extended
from Saudi Arabia to Syria only There were five cities where the Nabataeans
paid a lot of money to be buried, three of those cities were located in the
Negev desert, where King Obodas was buried, another city was Petra, and the fifth city
was in Saudi Arabia. Then Petra was not a city for the living, many caravans arrived
here and many people inhabited it, there were temples and palaces, there was
a nymphaeum, but in general Petra was a city for the dead, one of the five sacred cities where the Nabataeans
lived. they buried, and almost everything that happened in Petra
had to do with the cult of the dead and the gods. So just like Muslims today go to Medina and
Mecca for pilgrimage, and just like Christians go to Rome or Jerusalem
for pilgrimage, Nabataeans used to go to these five cities
for pilgrimage, that's why the Siq is full of altars for the
gods, that is why you walk through the Siq, then you go up to the altar for the sacrifices,
and then you continue walking to the Monastery taking this entire route full of altars in
honor of the gods and ending up climbing to the top of the mountains to pay homage to
the great Dushara and the great deified kings. That is why in Petra there is so little room
for the living and most of the space is dedicated to the dead. Then the Nabataeans used to go to this city
to visit their loved ones and held banquets at the door of the
tombs in honor of the dead, before ascending to honor their mountain god
at the sacrificial altar, and their great deified king in the Monastery. Petra is undoubtedly one of the places in
the world that most awakens our imagination, and that has a unique power to transport us
to another era, to a legendary moment in time, to another
world that seems almost fantasy. When you visit Petra, you get the feeling
of entering a new world, a different world, a unique place. Thank you very much for staying until the
end I hope you have enjoyed and learned. Please give me a like and subscribe to my
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few days. Goodbye.
