Q&A YOU ASK, WE ANSWER
When was Petra discovered?
SHORT ANSWER A Swiss explorer going in the wrong direction made Europeans aware of the Rose City for the first time since the Crusades
LONG ANSWER The ruins of Petra may be hidden in a valley in modern-day Jordan, famously accessible through a narrow passage in the cliffs, but the city was never all that lost. When we say ‘discovered’ then, we should add ‘by Westerners’.
The Nabataeans, a nomadic Arab tribe, carved Petra from the terrain in around the fourth century BC and the ‘Rose City’, named for its sandstone colour, became a thriving capital and trading centre. After its decline from the Roman era, Petra drifted out of European knowledge except for some crusading knights. And so it remained until the 19th century.
In 1812, Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt heard tales of ancient ruins out in a distant valley and decided to look for them. He was meant to be traversing the Sahara for the source of the River Niger, but told his guides that he wished to sacrifice a goat at those ruins, as they were supposedly near the tomb of Aaron, brother of Moses. Burckhardt couldn’t stay long – fearing the locals would see him as nothing more than a pilfering infidel – but he marvelled at Petra’s most famous sight, Al-Khazneh (the Treasury), and the temple of Qasr al-Bint. Before leaving he sacrificed a goat, just to be safe.
