Uncovering Petra

The Peripatetic Historian visits Petra, Jordan

Petra, Home of the Nabataeans. All photos by author.

You don’t hear much about the Nabataeans these days.

When people discuss ancient civilizations around the campfire, conversation inevitably gravitates toward the Greeks, the Romans, the Persians of Cyrus or the mysterious Tang Dynasty. We forget about the great cultures that flared around the rim of this Eurocentric history — the…