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PETRA, A CROSSROADS IN THE
DESERT
CHAPTER XXXXI
part III - Freemasonry, Religion and Civilisation
THE SQUARE AND COMPASSES
W.
M. Don Falconer PM, PDGDC
Petra was the capital of Edom and
then of Nabataea - a vital crossroads of the ancient camel caravan
trade routes north to south between the Mediterranean Sea and the
Indian Ocean and east to west between
Mesopotamia and Egypt.
Petra was the ancient town of
Sela in the region of Edom or Idumaea, the hill country or mountain
of Seir in Genesis 14:6 where Chedorlaomer defeated the
Horites. This range of mountains is a rugged escarpment, 25 to 30
kilometres wide, which forms part of the western boundary of the
vast Eastern Desert and runs southwards from the Dead Sea on the
eastern edge of the valley of Arabah, the southern section of the
Jordan rift valley. At the base of the mountain range, in the valley
of Arabah, there are low hills of limestone. Above them the main
body of the range is comprised of lofty masses of porphyry, towering
in cliffs rising 600 metres or more above the valley. The porphyry
is surmounted by massive variegated sandstone broken into irregular
ridges and grotesque groups of cliffs that vary in colour from buff
through yellow ochre and light red ochre to chocolate brown. Further
east reaching a height of more than 1,000 metres above the valley,
long elevated ridges of limestone gradually slope away to merge into
the desert plateau. Petra was a stronghold or fortress in Wadi
Mousa, surrounded by massive sandstone cliffs at the western edge of
the Eastern Desert escarpment, 200 kilometres south of Amman and
midway between the Dead Sea and Aqaba at the head of the Red Sea. In
favourable light at sunrise or sunset the sandstone cliffs can take
on a pink or red glow, fitting the description
“rose pink city” often used to describe
Petra. The arid climate has an annual rainfall of 50 millimetres or
less, usually falling in spasmodic storms. There are no perennial
streams or substantial permanent springs in the vicinity, but thanks
to the resourceful inhabitants itinerant caravan traders regarded
Petra as a plentiful watering stop.
The name Petra dates from
classical times, when Greece began to colonise and establish trading
posts in the Levant, the Near East and northern Africa after about
600 BCE. Petra is the Greek word petra meaning
rock. It is interesting that the original name Sela
was the Hebrew word sela’, or has-sela’,
which also mean rock or cliff. Whilst
the location of the ancient city is remote and uninviting, the entry
into Petra from the desert is positively forbidding. Petra is a few
kilometres west of the old King’s Road from
Jerusalem to Aqaba, which Numbers 20:14-21 says the King of
Edom would not allow the Israelites to move their flocks along to
cross over the Edomite lands. The road was an important north-south
artery marked by numerous settlements from as early as
2300 BCE, perhaps named after a Canaanite king. A branch also
went westwards through Petra to Egypt, descending into the Arabah
valley through a steep gorge called Wadi Yitem. This east-west
branch connected the Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilisations and
became part of the Silk Road bringing spices and silk
from China to the Mediterranean Sea. Camels travelling along the
route formed the original track, and the Romans later paved the
north-south road with stone. The entrance to the desert stronghold
begins as a narrow cleft in a wall of rock opening into a chasm
called the Siq, an ancient gorge generally about 10
metres wide and with sheer walls up to 50 metres high, cut by a
river that has been dry for thousands of years except during the
occasional winter thunderstorms. The Siq twists and
turns for about 2 kilometres before suddenly revealing the two
storey façade of the Khasneh al Faroun or
“Pharaoh’s Treasury”, the most renowned building in
Petra carved out of the rock, which is still in a remarkably good
condition.
Palmyra, Jerash and Petra are
regarded as the three great classical cities of the Nabataean Empire
that were prominent in the affairs of the Near East, especially from
about 200 BCE to about 200 CE. Palmyra, the Biblical town
of Tadmor, is the northernmost, about 240 kilometres northeast of
Damascus. An ancient city based on an oasis in the desert of Syria,
Palmyra flourished by about 300 BCE, but it was destroyed in
272 CE after Queen Zenobia led a revolt against the Romans.
Jerash is the ancient town of Gerasa, midway between the Dead Sea
and the Sea of Galilee in a fertile valley about 30 kilometres east
of the Jordan River, near perennial streams. Jerash suffered badly
from the earthquakes during the period from 550 to 555, but was
shattered by the great earthquake of 747 and lay derelict for
centuries afterwards. Palmyra and Jerash both developed and
flourished under the influence of Hellenic suzerainty and later were
redeveloped and expanded as great Roman cities. Jerash is the
“City in the Wilderness” described in the previous
chapter. The Roman expansion of Palmyra was similar.
The development of Petra, the
southernmost of the three cities, was different. The design of
temples and tombs carved out of the sandstone, for which Petra is
famous, reveal traces of Assyrian, Persian and Egyptian influence,
although the Nabataean style is predominantly classical Greek. The
Roman emperor Trajan conquered Mesopotamia in 115 and Petra came
under Roman jurisdiction. When Hadrian became emperor in 117 he
visited Petra and initiated some Roman changes, including the usual
Hadrian’s Triumphal Arch, a street of columns, fountains and a
theatre that were integrated into the existing city, not a complete
redevelopment as in Palmyra and Jerash. The permanent population
during the Nabataean period is estimated to have reached a maximum
of about 30,000 and to have averaged 20,000 for at least two
centuries. Petra continued to be an important trade crossroads for
at least a century under Roman rule, until the route through Palmyra
and Damascus to the Mediterranean Sea at Tyre improved and became
convenient than the southern route to Egypt. After then the
population declined rapidly and few were left to flee Petra in 350
when an earthquake destroyed the residential area. Fortunately most
of the remarkable structures carved out of the sandstone survived
relatively unscathed. Petra remained in oblivion until August 1812
when Johann Ludwig Burckhardt (1784-1817), a young Swiss with a
grant from the African Association of England, went through the
Siq west of the old King’s Road and
reached Wadi Mousa. He correctly concluded that the ruins at Wadi
Mousa had been the residential area of Petra.
The earliest known inhabitants
of the region were the Hurrians, the Biblical Horites or Horims who
were defeated by Chedorlaomer and his confederate kings in about
2100 BCE. Subsequently five local kings drew up their forces
and marched against Chedorlaomer’s group, five against four, but the
five were defeated. In Genesis 14:18-20 we are told that
Melchizedek, the King of Salem and Priest of God Most
High, blessed Abram after that event and received from Abram
a tithe of all the booty he had received. During the last seventy
years archaeological excavations at the site of ancient Mari, half
way along the Euphrates River, have unearthed many Hurrian religious
tablets dating from as early as 2400 BCE, revealing fresh
details of those ancient people and of the marriage and social
customs that prevailed during the patriarchal period of Genesis.
According to Genesis 36:6-8, some time after Jacob had
deceived his father Isaac and cheated Esau out of his birthright,
Esau moved his family and belongings to the hill country of Seir.
Esau means hairy and Seir means hairy or
rough. Deuteronomy 2:12 records that Esau moved
into Seir, destroying the Horites as he advanced and settling in
their land. Esau’s descendants were the Edomites, usually called
Idumaeans by Greek and Roman writers.
The Nabataeans were a nomadic
desert tribe who pushed northwards during the period from the sixth
to the fourth centuries BCE, when they seized the fortresses of Edom
and Moab. It seems likely that the ancestor of the Nabataeans was
Nabaioth, who was Ishmael’s eldest son mentioned in Genesis
25:13 and also the brother-in-law of Esau. Genesis
28:9 records that Esau married Mahalath who was Nabaioth’s
sister and a daughter of Abraham’s son Ishmael. After seizing the
fortresses the Nabataeans gained control of the great caravan
routes, established their capital at Petra and developed a
remarkable civilisation. They were at the peak of their power from
about 200 BCE until about 100 CE. During the reign of
Aretas III (86-62 BCE), the Nabataean territory reached
the Mediterranean Sea south of Gaza and extended on the eastern side
of the Jordan River as far north as Damascus in Syria. In
106 CE Nabataea was annexed to Rome as a province of Arabia.
Herod the Great, whose father Antipater was of Idumaean descent,
rebuilt and enlarged the second temple at Jerusalem. Another
Antipater was the younger son of Herod the Great by Malthace,
usually called Antipas and known as Herod the Tetrarch, a great
builder like his father. Antipas married the daughter of the last
and most famous Nabatean king, Philopatris or Aretas IV, who
extended the Nabataean frontiers east as far as the Euphrates River
and south to the Red Sea. When Antipas divorced the daughter of
Aretas to illegally marry a Roman woman Herodias, Antipas’ niece and
also the former wife of Philip his half-brother, Aretas’s daughter
fled to Petra before Antipas could detain her. Aretas thereupon
declared war on Antipas and defeated him in 36 CE.
We are told in
II Chronicles 25:14-15 that the Edomites were idolaters.
Petra was reputed to be a pagan centre, where there were many pillar
cults, which seems to have been confirmed by archaeological
excavations. The religious facilities belong to two different eras,
probably 1,000 years apart. The more recent religious precinct
comprises the tombs and temples carved into the cliffs east of
Petra’s residential area in Wadi Mousa and a few similar religious
facilities in the cliffs to the west There also are several ancient
High Places, of which a typical ancient Canaanite
High Place of Sacrifice is the most important, similar
in concept to the ancient sanctuary at Baalbek, although the
location at Petra is more dramatic. Those two sanctuaries at Petra
and Baalbek probably were contemporary and might have been in use as
early as 2300 BCE, long before Chedorlaomer defeated the
Hurrians and Melchizedek, the King of Salem and Priest of God
Most High, blessed Abram. The main High Place
is located on the Attuf Ridge southeast of the residential area,
above the cliffs where so many temples and tombs were carved into
the sandstone rock faces.
The date of origin has not
been determined, although some have suggested it is Nabataean
because of the quality of the stone carving, but taking all relevant
factors into account it is probable that the Nabataeans enhanced the
facilities of an Edomite or even earlier sanctuary. The ancient
religion practised at Petra is not known in detail, but it probably
had much in common with that of the early Canaanites and also of the
early Egyptians at the “pillar city” of Annu or On.
One god, Dusares, whose origins probably relate to the
Edomites or even the Hurrians before them, was often referred to as
“the god of our Lord” who was symbolised by a block of
stone and might also have been represented by obelisks. The
Nabataeans are thought to have introduced the other principal deity,
the goddess Al Uzza, known as Allat
meaning “the Mighty One” in Arabia, but as she was a
universal mother figure equivalent to the Egyptian goddess
Isis, the Nabataeans may only have changed her name.
She was their deity of springs and water. She also was symbolised by
a block of stone and might have been represented by obelisks.
The central feature of the
main High Place is a large rectangular court,
excavated several metres deep on top of a rock outcrop. Two
Pilgrim’s Paths provide access to the court from the
level of Wadi Mousa 200 metres below, incorporating many long
flights of steps cut out of the rock. The High Altar
is elevated above and is to the west of the court, carved out of a
rectangular block of rock left in situ during the main excavations.
A raised platform of rock has been left in-situ in the court,
off-centre and to the east of the High Altar, to serve
as a Table of Offering. A rock platform overlooks the
western end of the court. Adjacent to the High Altar,
to the south, is a Round Altar with a small circular
pool carved in the centre and a wider and shallower annulus carved
around it. A washbasin is carved out of the rock adjacent to each
altar. A rectangular
pool or water tank, with steps going down into the water, is on an
extension of the rock outcrop on which the court stands. The altars
are protected from the sheer drop by a wall of rock that was not
excavated. Several channels have been excavated into the various
platforms to provide appropriate drainage. George Robinson gives a
detailed description and study of the main High Place
at Petra in his Sarcophagus of Ancient Civilization.
On the same ridge, but across a ravine to the south, two obelisks of
typical Nabataean construction are aligned due east to west,
standing about 7 metres high and 33 metres apart. They probably
represent the deities Dusares and Al
Uzza, both of whom elsewhere have been represented in this
form. It has been suggested that they may also be related to Jachin
and Boaz and with the male and female fertility deities of ancient
Egypt.
The occupied area was in an
undulating valley about 2 kilometres long running from northeast to
southwest, flanked by steep cliffs along the eastern and western
boundaries. Two wadis run down the valley from the north, one more
or less in the middle and the other near to the western cliffs. They
join Wadi Mousa, which emerges from the Siq near the
southern end of the valley and runs almost due west. The main street
in the central city area was midway along the southern bank of Wadi
Mousa, about 350 metres long and running from east to west. In Roman
times it was converted into a street of columns, the Colonnade
Street. A gate at the western end of Colonnade Street was the
entrance to the temenos or sacred precinct, almost 200
metres long and about 70 metres wide. The great temple, Kasr
el Bint Faroun, was at the western end of the
temenos that was constructed during the reign of
Obdoas II (30-9 BCE). It was the largest freestanding
building in the residential area that substantially survived the
great earthquake, having a portico supported by four columns and a
marble altar in the open air at the front. The royal palace and
gymnasia were on the north side of Colonnade Street near the
temenos gate, facing the long flight of steps and
colonnade of the propylaea or gateway leading to
another large temple. A small temple and baths were adjacent to the
propylaea on the west. It is interesting and unusual
that all three temples faced towards the north.
Various markets fronted the
full length of Colonnade Street on the southern side east of the
propylaea. The Roman theatre was away from the central
city area, cut into the southern cliffs of the outer
Siq, where it emerged into the valley. Hadrian’s
Triumphal Arch was further east than the theatre, in the
Siq itself. The greater city area was protected by
substantial masonry walls on the western and northern flanks and for
the full width of the valley at the southern end, a total length of
almost 3 kilometres. Almost 2 kilometres of cliff face provided the
remainder of the protective barrier. Much later a new northern wall
was constructed, about 700 metres long and 300 metres closer to the
city centre. Very little of the walls has yet been excavated, but in
general they appear to have been at least 2 metres thick, with a
flat upper surface suitable for patrols to walk along. Many of the wide range of
carved and excavated structures at Petra could be tombs or temples
and differ greatly in style, size and finish. The temples and tombs
carved out of the rock, for which Petra is famous, are mostly
located in the cliff face to the east of the city. The monuments are
decorated in a mixture of rectilinear, Persian, Assyrian,
Hellenistic and Roman styles, but the Nabataean classical style is
the most dramatic, typified by the Khasneh al Faroun,
which will be described in some detail. Those seeking more details
of the religious structures and the buildings in the residential
area would find Iain Browning’s Petra a comprehensive
and interesting source of information.
Nearly all of the temples and
tombs are of Nabataean origin. The first excavated structure that is
seen when emerging from the Siq is the Khasneh
al Faroun, or “Pharaoh’s Treasury”. The name
reflects an old Bedouin belief that an Egyptian pharaoh built it to
store treasure. Although often called a temple the two-storied
structure probably was a tomb, about 30 metres wide and 40 metres
high. The single central entrance is about 4 metres wide and almost
10 metres high, with a typical triangular pediment. The lower storey
has three pillars on each side of the entrance, with the spaces
between the outermost pairs of pillars wider than the adjacent
spaces, giving a pleasant appearance. The upper storey also has six
pillars, with the outermost pairs directly above those of the lower
storey but the central pair much closer together. All pillars have
Corinthian capitals with delicately curved acanthus leaves, an
unusual feature in Nabataean art. Representations of windows, with
arched pediments in the lower storey and plain lintels in the upper
storey, are carved between the outermost pairs of columns in both
stories and also between the central pair of columns in the upper
storey, framing items of statuary. The asymmetry of the two storeys
is very pleasing to the eye. Over the two central pillars in the
upper storey the lintel and upper adornments are circular in plan
and support a huge classical urn, all carved out of the rock. The
urn is the traditional storage vessel for the treasure, whether real
or imaginary. The classical Greek style of this structure reflects
the fact that Aretas III held all aspects of Greek culture in
the highest esteem. In some respects the interior of the
Khasneh al Faroun reminds us of the pyramids of Egypt.
The main chamber is huge, unadorned and cubical in shape, with a
smaller chamber on each side and a small chamber behind. It has been
conjectured that priests might have used the smaller chambers for
worship or ritual purposes and that the small chamber at the rear
might have been the tomb of Aretas III, but no records have
been found.
Other tombs in the classical
Nabataean style of the Khasneh al Faroun include the
Palace Tomb, the Deir, the Urn Tomb and the Silk Tomb. The Palace
Tomb was the largest, supposedly replicating a Roman palace. The
Deir looks almost the same as the Khasneh al Faroun,
but it is much wider and has an additional column at each end of
both storeys. One of the most spectacular structures is the Urn
Tomb, often called the Royal Courts of Justice, which has a
courtyard in front, flanked by cloisters and colonnades. It was
converted to a Christian church in 446 CE. The Silk Tomb is
mundane architecturally, but in favourable light it is remarkable
for the sheer beauty of the brilliantly coloured bands of sandstone.
Two other excavated structures of entirely different characters are
notable. One is called the Obelisk Tomb, which has a façade of four
robust circular columns in the lower storey, supporting four squat
obelisks of Egyptian style in the upper storey. The other is the
Roman Soldiers’ Tomb with typical Roman architecture, which is
unlike any other of the excavated structures because it is
elaborately decorated inside. These are only a few of the excavated
tombs and temples.
Remarkable and
aesthetically attractive as the temples and tombs of Petra are, the
irrigation and water conservation facilities initiated by the
Edomites and the extensive city water supply installed later by the
Nabataeans were equally as innovative and involved a great deal of
engineering skill and ingenuity. The Edomites were renowned for
their ability to husband and utilise the scant water supplies for
agricultural purposes and to supply their scattered villages. The
meagre rainfall is spasmodic and few of the springs that develop in
the valley of Wadi Mousa after a rainfall are a good continuing
source of water until the next rainfall, so that the available water
was insufficient for the requirements of the city developed by the
Nabataeans. Fortunately there is an abundant perennial source of
water called Ain Mousa, or Moses Spring, on the escarpment at the
edge of the desert some distance from the entrance to the
Siq, several kilometres from the central city area.
The Nabataeans utilised this source for their city water supply. The
following quotation from Ian Browning’s Petra
emphasises the capabilities of the Edomites and the Nabataeans in
this regard:
“It was quite
natural that the Nabataean deities should have a very close
approximation with water, for this was the one single factor which
made the city possible. Not only did their trade depend on it but
also their agriculture was made possible by it. This they developed
to a high degree and the remains of he walls of terrace fields can
still be seen scattered across the desert surrounding all the known
Nabataean settlements. Even the most improbable parts of the desert,
where nothing but the wire grass and shiah herb now grows, have
these crumbling remainders still holding back the remnants of soil
from final erosion, None of this would have been possible had they
not been skilled in irrigation.
The Edomites
had started the process of water conservation in Petra but it was
the Nabataeans who took such great pains to develop this into an
elaborate system of control and regulation. Their water engineering
was in fact their most impressive achievement: their architecture is
remarkable, their pottery exceptionally fine, but their techniques
of collecting, distributing and conserving water display outstanding
ingenuity, skill and imagination which even the Romans could not
better.”
Although the Nabataeans
were renowned for their expertise carving in rock and producing
excellent clay products, including interlocking earthenware water
pipes, their ability to construct masonry structures did not equal
that of the Egyptians or Phoenicians. Even so they constructed a
remarkably efficient water supply system for the city. If the
permanent residents used a meagre 1 litre of water per day, they
would have used at least 7.5 million litres of water per
annum for two centuries or longer. The average camel drinks about 90
litres when replenishing after a desert trip. We have no way of
knowing the frequency of trips or numbers of camels that passed
through Petra, but a train of 50 camels passing each way from north
to south and from east to west each week would increase the annual
water requirement of the city by about 1 million litres. To conserve
their limited water resource the Nabataeans installed a storage
reservoir in the vicinity of Ain Mousa, called al
Birka meaning the pool in Arabic, mostly cut
out of the rock. The reservoir capacity was 2.5 million
litres, or about 30% of their annual requirement. It primarily
collected water from surface runoff, but was supplemented by
conduits from Ain Mousa and other springs when water was available
from them. An aqueduct several kilometres long was cut in the rock
and covered with rock slabs over much of the distance to prevent
contamination and evaporation. Passing through the
Siq, it conveyed water from the storage reservoir to a
subsidiary reservoir in the city. Smaller pipes were also installed
to convey water from springs direct to the city reservoir when
available. Earthenware water pipes were also used for distribution.
The Nabataeans earned their reputation for having a plentiful water
supply.
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