Visit Petra — Factoids About the Rose City

Visiting Petra is an experience and a half. Without a doubt Jordan’s most prominent and visited tourist destination, this ancient town has been elected to be one of the seven new world wonders.

While Petra is still an architectural site still under study there are so many things scientist have already found out about the past (though probably still plenty more to discover).

Petra History

• Petra was built by Nabataeans. They were a nomadic tribe who took over a strategically important area and made a capital city there.

• Petra peak time as a modern and cosmopolitan trade city was from 1BC-1AD.
• Their main genius lay in water management but also in trade.
• They extracted salt and bitumen from the Dead Sea and produced copper, iron, glass.
• During its heydays, it took 12 weeks for a caravan to travel from Southern Arab to Petra (2,750 km).
• Taxes and duties along the way were 688dinars per camel (more than average man earned in two years. In today’s money it is equivalent of $4,200).

• Petra is located next to a town called Wadi Musa (Valley of Moses) and is believed to be a place where Moses performed a miracle of creating springs from stone. Today the town is all about servicing Petra (hotels, food places, etc.)

Women in the Nabatean Kingdom

Nabatean Kingdom it was far ahead of its time (and many modern societies) in many things including gender equality.

• Women had equal status in society.
• Nabatean coins had queens along the side of kings. Women’s inheritance was equal, they could sign contracts, run businesses and own and sell a property.
• First western woman to visit Petra was Charlotte Rowley during the 1835–1836 expedition.

Re-discovering Petra for the West

Petra was lost from the knowledge for the Western world for a few centuries until 1812 Swish explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt heard of the ancient city. He convinced a local guide that he is Muslim looking to make a pilgrimage to the Tomb of Harun. He went, he saw and he wrote about it raising a lot of interest in the Western world. Six years later the first official expedition was made by the British.

Petra today

• 70% of the local community relies on tourist for their livelihood. General info about Petra visit is at Petra official site.
• Approximately 40% of all recorded species in Jordan exist within the Petra area (including 42 out of impressive 105 reptiles and amphibians).
• Petra is a Greek word for ‘rock’.

The current time is like a parallel universe, so fitted on top of the solemn though colourful past. Its movement, noises and technologies are dynamic yet it all revolves around the solid stone. Cameras clicking, phones being taken out to use Petra free WIFI to upload the photos to social media to show friends “I’m here, I’m part of the past!”

Originally published at alibraryinmyluggage.com on January 31, 2019.