History

From Nabataean capital to Roman province to rediscovery (the most precisely PetraJordan single Edomites Seir biblical predecessors Nabataean Arab 4th century BCE settlement capital 312 BCE Antigonus I Monophthalmus failed siege Nabataean hydraulic system water pipes cisterns springs 8km Aretas III 100 BCE 60 BCE Hellenistic cultural peak Al-Khazneh 1st century BCE CE Roman annexation Trajan 106 CE Arabia Petraea Byzantine 5th century CE earthquake 363 CE Crusader Fort 12th century CE Swiss explorer Burckhardt 1812 CE rediscovery disguised UNESCO heritage: the Nabataean period (4th century BCE-106 CE: the earliest Nabataean settlement at Petra; the Nabataeans arrived in the area from the Arabian Peninsula and established a city controlling the trade routes between Arabia (incense and spices), the Mediterranean (Greek and Roman markets), and Egypt; the failed siege of 312 BCE (Antigonus I, a general of Alexander the Great, sent an army to capture Petra and its trade revenues; the Nabataeans defeated the army by knowing the desert water sources that the Greek army did not)); the peak (approximately 100 BCE-100 CE: the reigns of Aretas III (reigned approximately 87-62 BCE) and Aretas IV (reigned approximately 9 BCE-40 CE); Al-Khazneh was likely built during this period; the Nabataean sculpture workshop (the famous Nabataean capital style: the stylized Nabataean capitals on the columns; half-Hellenistic, half-Arab in design)); the Roman annexation (106 CE: the Emperor Trajan created the Province of Arabia Petraea; Petra was peacefully incorporated into the Roman Empire; the city continued to prosper (the Cardo (the main Roman colonnaded street), the Nymphaeum, the Temple of Winged Lions)); the decline (363 CE: a massive earthquake destroyed large parts of the hydraulic system; Petra was gradually abandoned; the Byzantine period (5th-7th centuries CE: a few churches were built; a Byzantine mosaic floor map from the 6th century CE survives at Petra)); the rediscovery (1812 CE: Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, a Swiss explorer working for the African Association, disguised himself as a Muslim pilgrim to enter the area and became the first European known to visit Petra in the post-Crusader era)) — the most precisely PetraJordan single Nabataean 4th century BCE failed siege Antigonus 312 BCE Aretas III 100 BCE 62 BCE Aretas IV 9 BCE 40 CE Al-Khazneh Roman annexation Trajan 106 CE Arabia Petraea earthquake 363 CE Byzantine decline Crusader 12th century Burckhardt 1812 CE disguised rediscovery UNESCO heritage in any UNESCO world heritage site)).