Q 01/05

Petra lies in the south of which modern country?

A) Jordan

B) Israel

C) Syria

D) Saudi Arabia

Answer · why

A) Jordan

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

Q 02/05

What does the Greek word Petra mean?

A) Temple

B) Rock

C) Treasury

D) Valley

Answer · why

B) Rock

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

Q 03/05

What did the Nabataeans themselves call the city?

A) Arabia Petraea

B) Wadi Musa

C) Raqmu

D) Sela

Answer · why

C) Raqmu

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

Q 04/05

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

A) Roses planted by the Romans

B) A Nabataean queen named Rose

C) Its rose-shaped street plan

D) The colour of its sandstone

Answer · why

D) The colour of its sandstone

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

Q 05/05

Around what date did the Nabataeans settle Petra?

A) 300s BC

B) 1 AD

C) 100 AD

D) 100 BC

Answer · why

A) 300s BC

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