Petra

Where is Petra?

You will find it in Ma'an Governorate, Jordan.

30.3286° N, 35.4419° E

The story behind it

Petra was built by the Nabataeans, Arab traders who grew rich by controlling desert routes for spices, silk and incense passing between Arabia, Egypt and the Mediterranean. Instead of building with stacked blocks, Nabataean carvers cut directly into soft sandstone cliffs, shaping temples, tombs and homes from solid rock. The city thrived for centuries before earthquakes and shifting trade routes emptied it, and it was eventually forgotten by the outside world, known only to local Bedouin. In 1812, a Swiss explorer disguised himself to sneak in and tell Europe about it again. Visitors today walk through the Siq, a narrow canyon with cliffs towering overhead, before the famous Treasury facade suddenly appears carved into the rock. Beyond it lie hundreds more tombs, a theatre, and a monastery reached by climbing hundreds of stone steps.

Find it on the globe

Petra is there as a little three-dimensional model of the building itself. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.

It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.

How was it built?

Petra's builders were master rock-carvers rather than bricklayers. Skilled workers climbed scaffolding built into the cliff and carved from the top of a facade downward, chiselling away sandstone bit by bit with hand tools until temples and tombs emerged from the rock. Because the stone was carved rather than stacked, buildings like the Treasury needed no foundations or mortar. Nabataean engineers also carved channels and cisterns into the rock to capture rare desert rainwater, allowing thousands of people to live in this dry canyon city.