Q 01/05

Petra lies in the south of which modern country?

A) Jordan

B) Israel

C) Syria

D) Iraq

Answer · why

A) Jordan

Jordan. Petra stood where the caravan roads from Arabia met those to Gaza and Damascus, which is how a desert people grew rich enough to carve it.

Q 02/05

What does the Greek word Petra mean?

A) Temple

B) Rock

C) Fortress

D) Valley

Answer · why

B) Rock

Rock. The name fits a city that was carved more than it was built: its great tombs and halls were cut straight out of the cliffs.

Q 03/05

What did the Nabataeans themselves call Petra?

A) Bosra

B) Gerasa

C) Raqmu

D) Gadara

Answer · why

C) Raqmu

Raqmu. Josephus, writing in the first century, said the whole Arabian nation still used that name, Arecem in his spelling, after the king who was supp...

Q 04/05

Petra is called the Rose City for the colour of which stone, the cliffs it is carved from?

A) Granite

B) Limestone

C) Marble

D) Sandstone

Answer · why

D) Sandstone

Sandstone. Flash floods and salt are steadily wearing the carved façades away, and so are visitors: at Al-Khazneh the surface has receded where hands ...

Q 05/05

Whose successors sent an army to plunder the Nabataeans' desert stronghold?

A) Hannibal

B) Alexander

C) Cyrus

D) Xerxes

Answer · why

B) Alexander

Alexander. In 312 BC one of his successors, Antigonus, sent an army to plunder the Nabataeans' mountain stronghold; they chased the raiders down and a...