Petra - Jordan

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The Seleucid King Antigonus, who had come to power in Babylonia when Alexander the Great's empire divided, rode against the Nabateans in 312 BCE. The Nabateans eventually repelled the invaders, and records show that they were eager to remain with the Seleucids to perpetrate their trading ambitions. While the Seleucids could not conquer the Nabateans militarily, their Hellenistic culture made a lasting impact on the Nabateans. New ideas in art and architecture influenced the Nabateans at the same time that their flourishing empire was expanding northward into Syria, around 150 BCE. The term "empire" used loosely here, for it was more a zone of influence. As the Nabateans expanded northward, more caravan routes and, thus, trading riches, came under their control. It was mainly this, rather than territorial takeover or cultural domination, that motivated them.

The growing economic and political power of the Nabateans began to worry the Romans, and in 63 BCE Pompey sent a force to cripple Petra. Nabatean King Aretas III either defeated the Roman Legions or paid a tribute to keep peace with them. Later, the Nabateans made a mistake by siding with the Parthians in their war with the Romans. After the Parthians' defeat, Petra had to pay tribute to Rome. When they fell behind in paying this tribute, they were invaded twice by the Roman vassal King Herod the Great. The second attack, in 31 BCE, saw him take control of a large swath of Nabatean territory, including the profitable northern trading routes into Syria. With their trading empire reduced to a shell of it's former glory, the Nabatean Empire staggered on for almost another century and a half. The last Nabatean monarch, Rabbel II, struck a deal with the Romans that as long as they did not attack during his lifetime, they would allowed to move in after he died. On his death in 106 CE, the Romans claimed the Nabatean Kingdom and set about transforming it with the usual plan of a colonnaded street, baths, and the common trappings of modern Roman life.
Much of what known about Nabatean culture comes from the writings of the Roman scholar Strabo. He recorded that their community governed by a royal family, although a spirit of democracy prevailed. Strabo also notes the materialism of the Nabateans.

With it's incorporation into the Roman Empire, Petra began to thrive once again. The city may have housed 20,000-30,000 people during it's heyday. The fortunes of Petra began to decline with the shift in trade routes to Palmyra in Syria and to expand seaborne trade around Arabia. The city struck another blow in 363 CE, when the free-standing structures of Petra thrown to the ground in a violent earthquake. Fortunately, Petra's greatest constructions preserved, carved as they are into the rock faces.
Not known whether the inhabitants of Petra left the city before or after the fourth century earthquake. Few silver coins or valuable possessions unearthed at Petra shows, however, the withdrawal was an unhurried and organized.

One theory holds the city of Petra was mainly a religious and administrative center, used occasionally as a fortress during times of war. Majority of temples and tombs supports this theory, which holds that as the dead began to consume more and more of Petra's space, the living moved to other caves or tents outside the inner confines of the "holy city".
It seems clear that when of the Muslim conquest in the seventh century CE, Petra had slipped into obscurity. The city damaged again by the earthquake of 747 CE, and housed a small Crusader community during the 12th or 13th century. It then passed into obscurity and forgotten until Johann Ludwig Burckhardt rediscovered it for the outside world in 1812.

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Petra - Jordan

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