Petra remains one of the most mysterious archeological sites in the world. While thousands of tourists walk through the narrow Siq every day, they often miss the engineering marvels that made life possible in the desert. For instance, the ancient builders constructed a complex system of pipes to control flash floods. Furthermore, a disguised explorer rediscovered the city after the Western world forgot it for centuries. Prepare to enter the capital of the Nabataeans.
Petra
The sun changes the color of the rocks throughout the day. The sandstone cliffs contain bands of red, white, and pink minerals. Consequently, the city glows with a distinct rose-red hue during the sunrise and sunset.
A Swiss explorer disguised himself to find the city. Johann Ludwig Burckhardt heard rumors of ruins in 1812. He dressed as an Arab scholar and hired a local guide to take him to the sacrifice site of Aaron.
Bedouins shot the urn on the Treasury. Locals believed the stone urn at the top of Al-Khazneh held gold. Therefore, they fired rifles at it to break it open, and you can still see the bullet holes today.
The Treasury serves as a tomb, not a bank. Although the name suggests it held money, the Nabataeans actually built it as a mausoleum. Specifically, King Aretas IV likely constructed it to hold his own remains.
Tectonic forces created the entrance canyon naturally. The Siq looks like a path carved by water or tools. However, a massive geological split tore the mountain apart, which created the narrow, winding passage that leads to the city.
Archaeologists have excavated only 15 percent of the site. The visible monuments represent a tiny fraction of what lies beneath the sand. Thus, the vast majority of the ancient city still remains underground, waiting for future discovery.
The Nabataeans mastered water engineering. They lived in an arid desert with very little rainfall. Consequently, they built an intricate network of dams, cisterns, and ceramic pipes to harvest every single drop of water.
A massive earthquake destroyed much of Petra. In 363 AD, a tremor leveled many of the free-standing buildings. As a result, many residents abandoned the site, which eventually left it to the desert sands.
The Monastery in Petra is significantly larger than the Treasury. While the Treasury gets all the fame, Ad Deir sits high in the mountains. You must climb 800 steps to reach it, but its massive facade dwarfs the more famous structure below.
People actually lived in the caves until recently. The Bdoul Bedouin inhabited the ancient tombs for centuries. However, the government relocated them to a nearby village in the 1980s to protect the UNESCO World Heritage site.
The city aligns with the movements of the sun. Architects positioned the main buildings to highlight the equinoxes and solstices. Therefore, the sun illuminates specific religious altars during sacred times of the year.
Romans added their own style to the architecture. After Rome annexed Petra in 106 AD, they built a colonnaded street. Furthermore, they added a distinct Roman theater that sliced through existing Nabataean tombs.
Indiana Jones made the site globally famous. The film The Last Crusade used the Treasury as the exterior for the temple of the Holy Grail. Consequently, tourism exploded after the movie hit theaters in 1989.
The builders carved the facades from the top down. Masons started at the very top of the cliff face. They carved a ledge to stand on and worked their way down, which eliminated the need for complex scaffolding.
Finally, nobody knows where the Nabataeans went. They seemingly vanished from the historical record after the Islamic conquest. Thus, their unique culture and writing system faded away, leaving only the stone city behind.
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