What is Petra?
Petra is the ancient capital city of the Nabataeans and is located in present-day southwestern Jordan to the east of the Wadi Araba, the great rift valley that runs from the Red Sea in the south to the Dead Sea in the north. From the Greek, the word Petra literally means “rock.” The word is fitting: the monuments and tombs of the city have been literally cut from the living rock formations. Petra served the Nabataeans in many ways. Initially it was inhabited as a depot for accumulated wealth and other goods too heavy to be compatible with a nomadic lifestyle. Later, its location along major trade routes allowed the Nabataeans to control the caravan routes from Arabia to Syria and gave them access to the Mediterranean Sea. It also became the religious and administrative center for the Nabataeans; the remains of their most important structures can still be seen today in the form of rock-cut tombs. Indeed, it is the marvelous rock-carving skills of the Nabataeans, which required both stre
