Petra

V. V. Vlasov

When we were little, we dreamed about traveling and read adventure books about pirates, uninhabited islands, lost cities, forgotten civilizations... One of the most mysterious places of which I knew from my childhood but never hoped to see was the city of Petra, cut in rocks and for centuries inaccessible for strangers.

Concealed in a mountain range, this astounding city, the capital of the ancient mysterious state of Nabataea, is situated on the territory of modern Jordan. For many centuries nobody came there, and the city was mentioned only in ancient manuscripts. When the capital of Nabataea buried in sands was discovered, a series of wars erupted in the Middle East. Foreigners got their chance to see Petra in 1991, and recently tourists from Russia have joined them.

In Greek the word “Petra” means “rock”. In the old days the city, which is indeed carved in rocks, was the capital of a vast country, the territory of which stretched from the south of modern Syria to the Sinai Peninsula and modern Saudi Arabia, taking a part of Israel. It is believed that the first inhabitants, the Edomites, appeared there at least four millennia ago. Later they mixed with the Arab tribes who had conquered extensive territories by that time. That is how the country with a quite special culture was formed in the 5th–2nd centuries B.C.

First Nabataea as a large state with the capital in Petra was mentioned in Bibliotheca Historia by Diodorus Siculus (the 1st century B.C.). The Nabataeans left not many of their own written documents. Only in the 1950s-60s in the caves near the Dead Sea the Nabataean business documentation was discovered, which was written in one of the variants of the Aramaic language. That is why our knowledge of the people and their lifestyle is scarce.

For about four centuries the Nabataeans owned vast lands in the Middle East. They were known for their belligerence. The fact that the state managed to keep its independence even after the campaigns of Alexander the Great is evidence in itself. There are descriptions of the Nabataeans fighting with the Greek army led by Antigonus I, who managed to conquer Petra for some time. But the Greeks celebrated their victory for just a few days, for very soon their detachment was completely destroyed. For a long time this story discouraged the surrounding countries from fighting with the freedom-loving people.

More information on these and other subjects you can find in the printed version of our journal.