50 Fun Facts About Petra

Petra lies in the south of which modern country?

It is the country's most-visited tourist attraction and a national symbol.

What does the Greek word Petra mean?

Its inhabitants used a Nabataean name from a root meaning 'to mark, to decorate', perhaps for its carved façades.

What did the Nabataeans themselves call the city?

Josephus wrote that the Arabs of his day still called it Rekeme after its royal founder.

Petra's nickname 'the Rose City' comes from what?

John William Burgon's 1845 prize poem called it 'a rose-red city half as old as time'.

Around what date did the Nabataeans settle Petra?

It became the capital of their kingdom two centuries later and grew rich on the incense routes.

What was the estimated peak population of Petra in the 1st century AD?

That was the century in which the Al-Khazneh was carved.

Which Nabataean king's mausoleum is Al-Khazneh thought to be?

It was probably built as a mausoleum and crypt at the start of the 1st century AD.

Al-Khazneh is known in English by what name?

Legends said the stone urn high on its façade held a pharaoh's hoard; it is solid sandstone.

What is the name of the narrow gorge that leads into Petra, meaning 'shaft'?

It is a natural split in the sandstone, in places only 3 to 4 metres wide, and also serves as a waterway.

Approximately how long is the gorge leading into the city?

Its walls rise between 91 and 182 metres and it ends at the city's most famous façade.

How tall is the Al-Khazneh façade?

It is 24 metres wide and its style recalls the architecture of Alexandria.

Which twin Greek gods, protectors of travellers, appear near the bottom of the Al-Khazneh façade?

The façade also has a broken pediment with a central tholos and two obelisks.

What is Petra's largest monument, standing 45 metres tall and 50 metres wide?

It shows more Nabataean touches than Al-Khazneh while borrowing Greek elements.

Roughly how many steps must visitors climb to reach the Monastery?

The walk from the Basin takes around 40 minutes.

About how many people could Petra's rock-cut theatre hold?

It was cut into the hillside and even through several older tombs.

Excavations show the supposed 'market area' in Petra's centre was really what?

The Petra Pool and Garden Complex included an island pavilion and an intricate hydraulic system.

How did the Nabataeans control the flash floods that visit the area?

Their skill at collecting rainwater is what let them thrive in the desert.

In which year did the Romans annex Nabataea, renaming it Arabia Petraea?

Aulus Cornelius Palma Frontonianus was governor of Syria at the time; the city kept flourishing under Rome.

Which Roman emperor built the Via Traiana Nova through Petra between 111 and 114?

It ran from the Syrian border to the Red Sea along old caravan routes.

Which emperor visited in 130 and put the name Hadriānī Petra Metropolis on his coins?

Unlike at Jerash, his visit brought no building boom.

Which rival caravan city drew the Arab trade away from Petra in the 2nd and 3rd centuries?

Sea routes finished the job, and Petra lingered mainly as a religious centre.

What natural disaster in 363 destroyed many buildings and crippled Petra's water system?

The city nonetheless survived into the Byzantine era as capital of Palaestina III.

What was found in Petra's Byzantine Church proving the city still flourished in the 6th century?

They date from the 530s to the 590s.

Which two deities were the principal gods of the city?

Epiphanius wrote that a feast was held on 25 December for the virgin Khaabou and her son Dushara.

Which Swiss traveller rediscovered Petra for the West in 1812?

Disguised as a local, he claimed to want to sacrifice a goat at the tomb of Aaron.

What alias did Burckhardt use during his travels in Arabia?

He also rediscovered the temples of Abu Simbel in Egypt.

Which river was Burckhardt on his way to explore when he detoured to find Petra?

He had heard stories of a dead city holding the tomb of the Prophet Aaron.

Which Scottish painter visited Petra in 1839 and published sketches of the Holy Land and Egypt?

Frederic Edwin Church followed in 1868 with the painting El Khasné, Petra.

Which poet won Oxford's Newdigate Prize in 1845 for a poem about Petra, a place he had never seen?

His line 'a rose-red city half as old as time' stuck to the site for ever.

Which 1989 film used Al-Khazneh as the temple housing the Holy Grail?

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger also filmed there.

On what date was Petra designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site?

UNESCO called it 'one of the most precious cultural properties of man's cultural heritage'.

Which Bedouin tribe was resettled from Petra's caves to Umm Sayhoun in 1985?

Their name means 'the changing ones'; the move preceded the UNESCO designation.

Which nearby town, whose name means 'Valley of Moses', hosts most of Petra's hotels?

Local folklore says Moses struck a stone here to bring forth water.

Whose tomb, according to tradition, sits on Jabal Haroun above Petra?

Burckhardt used a supposed pilgrimage to it as his cover story.

What is Little Petra also known as?

Its 2,000-year-old Hellenistic ceiling frescoes have been restored.

Which Neolithic settlement just north of Petra had farmers by 7000 BC?

It is a Pre-Pottery Neolithic site.

Which people occupied the Petra area in the Iron Age before the Nabataeans?

Their site atop Umm el-Biyara dates from no earlier than the 7th century BC.

Which Nabataean king is the first explicitly named, called 'the tyrant of the Arabs' in 2 Maccabees?

The kingdom stayed independent from the mid-3rd century BC until Rome annexed it.

Which modern script emerged from the Nabataeans' cursive alphabet?

Their alphabet had itself developed from Aramaic, which they used for trade and officialdom.

What was the Nabataean Kingdom's second city, now a UNESCO site in Saudi Arabia?

It was the kingdom's southernmost major city.

According to Diodorus Siculus, the Nabataeans traded which goods from Arabia Felix?

They also sold Dead Sea bitumen to Egypt and hid bottle-shaped rainwater cisterns from invaders.

Which Mamluk sultan visited the ruins of Petra at the end of the 13th century?

Crusaders had built castles there in the 12th century before abandoning the site.

Which magazine published Archibald Forder's photographs of Petra in December 1909?

By then thieves had already stripped many of the weakened tombs.

Roughly how many tourists visited Petra in 2019, its record year?

Petra drew about 1.1 million visitors in 2019, a record for the site, which was named one of the New 7 Wonders of the World in 2007.

Which American institution led the excavation of Petra's Great Temple from 1993?

Philip Hammond of the University of Utah worked at Petra for nearly 40 years.

Which emperor declared Petra a Roman colony towards the end of the 3rd century?

By then coinage had ended and no more sumptuous tombs were being carved.

Which two Frenchmen made the first accurate drawings of Petra in 1828?

They came sixteen years after Burckhardt's visit.

What did Petra's colonnaded street once hold that flash floods later ruined?

The Nabataeans' dams and conduits had once kept such floods in check.

Which biblical name did an old theory try to identify with Petra?

The Hebrew word simply means the same thing as the Greek name, so the identification is doubtful.

Which of Petra's Royal Tombs was turned into a church in AD 446?

The Palace Tomb is thought to have held Petra's kings, and the Corinthian Tomb copies the Treasury's Hellenistic style.