Petra

Heritage	Rose City	Muslim	Indiana	Treasury
Mesopotamian	Greek	Monastery	1812	300
70	four	capital	ancient	southwest

A marvel in Asia

Petra is a beautiful __________ city and one of the most famous historical archaeological sites because it is half man-made¹ and half carved² into the rock that surrounds³ the city. This rock is rose-red color naming this landmark as ‘the ________ ________’. Petra means ‘rock’ in ________, and it was named like this because of the buildings carved directly into rocky sandstone cliffs⁴.



Some history about Petra

Located in the ________ of Jordan, in Asia, between the Dead Sea and the Red Sea, Petra was built in 312 BC by the Nabateans (an ancient tribe from the Sinai Peninsula). The Nabateans were skilled⁵ at carving, plumbing, trading and masonry.

Thanks to their influence, Petra became _______ of their kingdom and a center of the spice trade⁶.
Merchants from China, Greece, Egypt and India marvelled at this unique city.
Later, Petra became part of the immense Roman Empire for about ______ years. Then, in the 600s a new religion was founded, the ________, and their people claimed⁷ the city. During the Middle Ages, the ________ Christian crusades conquered the area but after this time, the ancient city was forgotten⁸ by the outside world for centuries.



Rediscovery of the stone city
The city was re-discovered in ______ by the Swiss⁹ orientalist, geographer and traveller, Johann Ludwig Burckhardt (to hide his true European identity he adopted the moniker¹⁰ Sheikh Ibrahim Ibn Adballah).
Since the 1950s archaeologists have excavated the site and studied the buildings and structures of Petra to reveal important information of daily life in the ancient Arab city. After almost ______ years, only 15% has been explored. The major discoveries are:

• Al-Khazneh (The __________). A mausoleum¹¹ believed to have been built in the 1st century.
• Ad-Deir (The __________). Built in the 3rd century, it is a structure of 45 meters high and 50 meters wide. It has Hellenistic¹² and ____________ architectural styles.

• The water conduit¹³ system. A large system of dams pipes and cisterns (tanks) which provided water to the ancient city as well as¹⁴ preventing the city from flooding –the water from the floods was controlled by this system storing¹⁵ it for the drought¹⁶ periods throughout the year.

A unique marvel
Petra is a big tourist attraction and people from all the world visit it. It is a World __________ Site and one of the Seven Modern Wonders of the World. It is so famous that is has also been the location of many documentaries and Hollywood movies, such as __________ Jones.

Adapted from https://www.scienceforkidsclub.com/petra.html (2020) &
https://kids.britannica.com/kids/article/Petra/474432 (2020)
Teacher Vladimir Hernández Cervantes
Last modified: May 2020

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¹ man-made = hecho por humanos
² carved = tallado, esculpido
³ surrounds = rodean
⁴ sandstone cliffs = acantilados de piedra arenisca
⁵ skilled = hábiles
⁶ spice trade = comercio de especias
⁷ claimed = reclamada
⁸ was forgotten = fue olvidada
⁹ Swiss = suizo
¹⁰ moniker = apodo
¹¹ mausoleum = mausoleo
¹² Hellenistic = Helénico, griego
¹³ conduit = conducto, canal
¹⁴ as well as = además de
¹⁵ storing = almacenando
¹⁶ drought = sequía

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