Petra, << PEE truh, >> was an ancient city south of the Dead Sea in what is now Jordan. It was an important trading center from the late 400’s B.C. to the early A.D. 200’s. The city stood on the overland trade route that linked Arabia and the Mediterranean Sea. An Arab people called the Nabataeans came to power in Petra in the 400’s B.C., and the city prospered. The people built handsome temples in the valley and cut deeply into the sandstone cliffs to make their houses and tombs. Petra has been called the rose-red city because of its red sandstone buildings and the red cliffs that surround it. In A.D. 106, Roman forces conquered Petra and made it part of the Roman Empire.
Amphitheater at Petra
About A.D. 235, Petra suddenly stopped making coins, and Palmyra, a city in Syria, took over most of Petra’s trade. Petra then became chiefly a religious center. By the A.D. 300’s, it had become a Christian city. Muslims captured Petra in the 600’s. Crusaders held the city during the 1100’s, until 1189. Soon afterward, it was abandoned. The Swiss explorer Johann Burkhardt rediscovered Petra in 1812. Today, the Bdoul Bedouin tribe lives at the site.
Loading the player...Petra, Jordan
