Ancient temples in the rocks. The ancient city of petra is an amazing architectural monument

I already wrote about this miracle, but then I found another photo and material. I collected it in a heap and laid it out again. Admire.

About 2,500 years ago in Jordan was built beautiful city, named Petra.

It was the capital of the Nabataean kingdom, which flourished for 200 years and was conquered by the Romans, after which the city sank into oblivion.

Civilization disappeared, and the treasures of the Nabataeans were not found. Where have they disappeared?

Treasury of Petra

The Nabateans built the mysterious Petra, and now tourists freeze in admiration when they meet the city in the rock. Information about the Nabataean state came through the works of Diodorus, Strabo and Josephus Flavius, mentioned in ancient Chinese sources about the Great Silk Road.

But there is no information about the origin of the Nabataeans themselves. Only guesses are left. They may be the descendants of Ishmael (he had a son Nabaiot), the son of Abraham, or a lost tribe of Israel since the destruction of the First Temple. Or maybe they are a sect (the Nabateans, who founded the city of Babylon after the Flood, or, according to Blavatsky, a mystical caste dedicated to the God of Secret Wisdom?

The early Nabataeans were ruled by a pagan cult. The main deities of their pantheon were Dushara and his female counterpart Allat, the mother of all gods. The finale of the gravestone inscription that has come down to us reads: "And this mausoleum will be sacred and reserved in accordance with the custom of the sacred and reserved, which is dedicated to Dushara and is declared reserved by the Nabateans and Salamis."

During the Roman domination, Allat was identified with Athena, Venus, Dushara - with Zeus and Dionysus. And the late Greek story of Epiphanius draws an analogy between the Nativity of Christ and Dushara, celebrated on the same day.

The future Nabataean state encompassed the central and southern parts of modern Jordan, the southern and southeastern part of Israel (the Arabian depression), the central and southern Negev, adjacent to the Kingdom of Judah. In the II century BC. in the history of the Nabataeans there is a powerful leap. Over the course of a century, this people turns from a nomadic to a sedentary one.

The Nabateans became famous as skilful architects. In addition, they have mastered the science of irrigation better than other peoples. The Arabian Desert bloomed with gardens only under the Nabataeans.

Most of the inhabitants of the kingdom became merchants. Now they set their own prices, collected a duty. They made Petra their capital, located at the intersection of three main trade routes, where, according to legend, they store untold riches.

By speaking a pro-Arab language, the Nabataeans created a writing system in Aramaic, which would later significantly influence Arabic. The Nabateans themselves, towards the end of the kingdom, switched to the Greek language.

The initially reigning sheikhs are replaced by kings who strive for complete deified power. Aretha IV describes herself as "the one who loved his people." The Nabataean elite are related to the Jewish. The mother of King Herod is the Nabatean queen.

The capital of the kingdom of Peter was a key transit hub where all the caravan routes of the ancient world converged. The Egyptians carried their goods to the Roman Empire and Arabia. The Arabians spread frankincense and myrrh through Petra all over the world. And in those days they were valued higher than gold.

The Nabataean city was not just a caravanserai on the way of merchants. He played the role of a stock exchange. Many merchants did not dare to go further through the deserts and handed over the goods to the inhabitants of Petra, and then they sold it. Coins of their own minting were used here.

Nabatea flourished for two hundred years. In 106 A.D. the end of an independent state is coming. The Roman Emperor Troyan achieved an uneasy victory. From the 4th century A.D. Nabatea gradually dissolves in Christian Byzantium and disappears without a trace in the Middle Ages.

Only Bedouins are allowed to reside in Petra

The mystery of the holy grail

For a year and a half in hot Jordan, in old town Peter the Great an expedition of Russian archaeologists is working. Our experts explore dungeons legendary city... It is in them, according to some sources, that the untold wealth of the Nabataeans can be hidden.

The city is built at a high architectural level: the skill of ancient engineers is admired, who managed to carve caves in the sandy rocks so that they would not be filled up and washed out. Arab art historians still do not believe that people could build Peter at all. They do not understand what methods were used by the Nabateans-nomads in such high-tech construction. The city was built very quickly and was also quickly populated. Its heyday fell on the 1st century BC, and the last mention dates back to the 7th century after the birth of Christ.

In the rocks there are residential apartments and apartments. Almost everywhere there are places for prayers: on one side there are recesses in the stone, so that it is more convenient to stand, and on the contrary - icons. There is a grandiose amphitheater that can seat about 3,000 people and served as a place for a lavish funeral.

According to one version, part of the treasures of the pharaohs is kept in Petra. According to the other, a spiritual treasure is hidden there - the Holy Grail, in search of which the crusaders came here. Historians claim that the Nabateans themselves may well have accumulated enough gold and jewelry.

Today the main occupation of local Bedouin residents is trade. They sell mainly handicraft souvenirs for tourists that are of no artistic or other value. And their ancestors did not exchange for trade in trinkets and homemade consumer goods, preferring goods made of gold, silver, precious stones.

Small jugs of treasure are dug up here and there in the city. In souvenir shops you can buy jewelry - bracelets, necklaces - with antique-stylized coins. And tourists constantly find something antique in the sands - fragments of pottery, burial urns. Those who are seriously interested in numismatics are sent to black archaeologists, despite the fact that illegal archeology in Jordan is severely punished. However, it is difficult to resist when there are hiding places somewhere nearby, and no one wants to believe that there are no real treasures left in such a rich city.

City of dead

The main place, long chosen by treasure hunters, is Al Khazneh. Translated from Arabic - treasury or treasury. In search of gold, the Bedouins even fired guns at the facade of the building. Interestingly, the top of this building is crowned with a large stone pot. Local residents cannot understand why it was necessary to decorate the majestic building with an ordinary pot, the place of which is in the pottery workshop. There is a legend among the Bedouins that ancient treasures are hidden in it. They say that it is worth hitting the pot successfully, and then the well-aimed shooter will literally shower him with gold and precious stones. But this is just a legend.

But where, then, are the treasures that, despite all attempts, have never been found, and were there any at all? Deputy Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences for scientific part, Doctor of Economics Vladimir Isaev believes that, taking into account the position of Petra in ancient world in it, by definition, countless riches were to be stored. However, the scientist suggested that they were plundered long ago. Art critic Lev Maciel Sanchez adheres to the same version. He is sure that the values ​​were gradually carried away by the inhabitants of Petra themselves, leaving the dying city, after in the III century the main trade routes began to shift north to Palmyra.

Royal Tombs in Petra

The Jordanian guides claim that the heritage of the great Nabateans has not gone anywhere from Petra. They say that under the visible part of the city there is a whole complex of caves, in which the treasury of the Nabateans is hidden.

To date, scientists have explored only a small part of the stone city. Those buildings that are located close to the surface of the earth have been excavated. Only recently, literally in last years, archaeologists began to make their way inland. And they were immediately rewarded: by laying the excavation in front of Al Khazneh, scientists found hitherto unknown burials. It seems that Petra is just now beginning to reveal her main secrets.

Petra caves

People still live in the caves of Petra

Monastery in Petra, Jordan

Petra at night

The passage into the valley is possible through the gorges located in the north and south, while from the east and west the cliffs drop off vertically, forming natural walls up to 60 m in height. In 2007, Petra was named one of the new Seven Wonders of the World.

Today, about half a million tourists come to Jordan every year to see Petra, whose buildings bear witness to its glorious past. As tourists walk through the cool one-kilometer-long Siq Canyon, the Treasury opens up around the bend, a stately building with a facade carved out of a huge rock.

It is one of the best preserved structures from the first century. The building is crowned with a huge urn made of stone, which supposedly contained gold and gems, - hence the name "Treasury".

The canyon gradually expands, and tourists find themselves in a natural amphitheater, in the sandstone walls of which there are many caves. But the main thing that catches your eye is the crypts carved into the rocks. The colonnade and amphitheater testify to the presence of the Romans in the city in the first and second centuries. Bedouins offer camel rides to tired tourists, sell souvenirs and water their herds of goats at the city springs, the waters of which quench the thirst of people and animals.

Couldn't they have traveled [to study the history of past centuries and millennia, and then visit the preserved monuments, capitals of states and civilizations that once flourished and crushed any enemy], while having understanding hearts and hearing ears ?!

It is not the eyes of people that go blind, but the hearts that are in their chests [they do not heed the lessons of the past in the present, do not try to understand them. Their whole life is a run from nowhere to nowhere along the narrow path of stereotypes and personal interpretations, subjective inferences]. *

Holy Quran 22:46

Impressed?

Then let's reveal the cards a little.

So, Petra (Arabic: البتراء) - ancient city, capital Idumei (Edom), later the capital of the Nabataean kingdom. Located on the territory of modern Jordan, at an altitude of more than 900 m above sea level and 660 m above surrounding area, the Arava valley, in the narrow Siq canyon.

Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan or Jordan - an Arab state in the Middle East. It borders with Syria in the north, Iraq - in the northeast, with Saudi Arabia- in the east and south, with Israel and Palestine - in the west. Jordan shares with Israel and Palestine coastlines Dead Sea and Gulf of Aqaba with Israel, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

About 90% of the kingdom's territory is occupied by deserts and semi-deserts.

The most famous landmark of Jordan is the city of interest to us Petra , located 262 kilometers south of Amman, and 133 kilometers north of Aqaba in the Wadi Musa Valley.

Ancient city is the property of the Bedouins, who are engaged in the manufacture and sale of souvenirs on the territory of the museum, as well as offer to travel on horses or camels. In place of the current Petra was the first fortified settlement, named " Villages" — "stone, rock". Later this name was translated into Greek - Pétra ("a rock").

Petra - the capital of the Nabataean kingdom and one of the most beautiful and well-preserved ancient cities. Petra is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List and is one of the new wonders of the world. In ancient times, Petra was on the trade route connecting the Middle East, Arabia and India.

Historians believe that the city was built by the Nabateans - Arab nomadic tribes who settled on these lands in the 3rd millennium BC. Petra's appearance is largely due to the Greco-Roman culture, which the Nabateans adapted to their needs. Starting with several easily defended caves in the rocks, Petra gradually turned into an impregnable fortress city. The lands of the former Nabatean kingdom and Peter were completely forgotten in the West.

The Swiss traveler Johann Ludwig Burckhardt was the first European of modern times to see and describe Petra in 1812.

The location of Petra itself is surprising, namely the mountains, which, depending on the time of day, change their color from dark red to pink and even orange.

It's not so easy to get to the ancient city, you have to overcome several kilometers on foot: first go down, and back up through Sik gorge. From the east and west, the cliffs drop vertically, forming natural walls up to 80 m in height.

Here is a description of this path, made in the 70s: “The path to the city lies through this passage. Its length is about 1.2 km, and its width is from 4 to 10 meters and more. The spectacle is truly unforgettable: reddish and brownish cliffs up to 80 m high hang from both sides; a strip of sky turns blue at the top, coarse gravel and sand rustles underfoot, smells of dampness and mold. The Romans failed to take Peter for several years; its inhabitants, blocking the only narrow passage leading to the fortified city, could hold back an entire army with small forces ...

Walking down the aisle- both to the right and to the left above the head are such cut, gnawed stones of red color. During the rainy season, this gorge turns into a rushing stormy stream. The road is decorated with the remains of the ancient pavement and rock carvings, and along the edges, like a railing, a water gutter winds, delivering water to Petra.

The beginning of the gorge through which you can get to Petra itself

Already approaching the exit from the gorge, we freeze in amazement: through the hole in the dark corridor, about fifty meters from its end, a pink building with columns and an elegant pediment illuminated by the sun is clearly visible. A few more minutes of patience and before us is one of the monumental tombs of Petra ... What is most striking is that it is a solid stone massif without any additions.

Opens around the bend El Khazneh- a majestic building with a facade carved out of a huge rock. It is one of the best preserved structures from the first century. The building is crowned with a huge urn made of stone, which supposedly contained gold and precious stones - hence the name of the temple (translated from Arabic as "treasury").

The interior of one of the "rooms" of El Khazneh.

Here you can see very clearly that all this was carved in a solid stone massif.

Around the cliff and the Al-Khazneh palace, you will find yourself surrounded by hundreds of rock-cut buildings, temples, tombs, small and large residential buildings, tombs and festive halls, long staircases, arches and cobbled streets. A little lower, a huge Roman amphitheater, carved out of stone, once accommodated more than 4 thousand spectators.

High in the mountains above the city, there is a sacred place of worship of the gods, from where a stunning panorama of Petra opens - an amphitheater, a Byzantine church and tombs of kings, Roman colonnades, Aaron's mausoleum, and the main temple of the Nabateans - Kazr al-Bint.

Here is a list of the most interesting of them: Al-Khazneh ("Treasury", the tomb of one of the Nabatean kings), Ad-Deir ("Monastery"), Sahrij ("Djinn blocks"), "Obelisk tomb", "Facade square", sacred mountain Jebel Al-Madbah ("Mountain of Sacrifices"), "Tombs of the Kings", Mugar An-Nasara ("Caves of Christians"), Theater, Byzantine church behind the ruins of Nymphaeum, Al-Uzzy Atargatis ("Temple of the Winged Lions"), Qasr Al- Bint ("Palace of the Pharaoh's daughter", although the pharaohs, of course, have nothing to do with this structure), etc.

The city has two archaeological museums: the old one (in Mount Jebel Al-Habis) and the new one, which have excellent collections, as well as many monuments identified with biblical chronicles - the Wadi Musa Valley itself ("Valley of Moses"), Mount Jebel Garun (Mount Aaron , where, according to legend, the high priest Aaron died), the source of Ain Musa ("Source of Moses"), etc.

Petra was called "a robber's nest", "blood stones", "a cursed place", "a city of evil spirits", "a ghost town", "a city of bloody altars", "a city of the dead."

The territory of Petra covers a large area. From the center, where the ruins of numerous buildings, no longer rocky, but built in the traditional way, of stone, are well preserved, it stretches for several kilometers.

The main street, stretching from east to west across the city, was built during the Roman rule. A majestic colonnade stretches on both sides. The western end of the street rested against a large temple, and the eastern end ended with a three-span triumphal arch.

Ed-Deir - a monastery carved into the rock at the top of a cliff - is a huge building about 50 m wide and more than 45 m high. Judging by the crosses carved on the walls, the temple served for some time as a Christian church.

Later, after the researchers excavated the space under the monastery, they discovered the tomb of one of the Nabatean kings.

Here is a very informative video from the National Geographic Channel:

The remains of this "city of the dead" are an edification for us who live after them. In the sacredIn the Qur'an, the Almighty in several verses tells us about the destroyed peoples and villages:

How many settlements have We destroyed together with their sinful, godless inhabitants: [old] houses collapsed and emptied, wells [water supply systems] became useless to anyone and fell into disrepair, and [solid] built [according to last word science and technology] palaces [if they remained standing, they were empty and deserted]. *

Holy Quran, 22:45

Each of the human communities has its own term [nothing is eternal in this world, everything (people, peoples, cities, states, eras, civilizations) has an earthly beginning and end]. If it comes, then nothing can be changed (it is impossible to delay or accelerate it). *

Holy Quran, 7:34

Have you not seen what your Lord has done with the ‘Adits ?! [With their tribe] Iram, which had [majestic] structures supported by pillars. Until that moment, there were no others like them [powerful and strong, smart].

Holy Quran 89: 6-8

Do they not see [do not know] how many civilizations were destroyed by Us earlier! Indeed, they will not return to them [to the existing ones]! *

Holy Quran 36:31

In conclusion, I will quote the words of a Muslim scholar-sage who was asked:

“Why do we hear edifications, instructions, but cannot benefit from them, they do not find their reflection in our life?

The sage replied: “For five reasons:

The first: Allah has endowed you with many bounties, has given you an uncountable number of blessings, but you have lost the feeling of gratitude towards Him

The second: having committed a sin, you stopped feeling fear of God's wrath, you stopped asking for mercy in deeds and words

Third: you don't follow what you know.

Fourth: there are righteous, well-behaved people in your environment, but you do not even think to be equal to them.

And the last one: you bury the dead, escort many of your relatives and friends to another world, but you cannot learn from this instructive lesson "

As-Samarkandi N. Tanbih al-ghafilin, p. 292

O Allah, fill our hearts with timidity before Your majesty and power. Awaken in us this feeling, which will manifest itself in our tears, that they will hammer in the future life with heavenly springs in the highest degrees of Firdavs! Amine.

Radiya Zavdetovna,

Mahalla No. 1

* With comments by Sh. Alyautdinov

When writing the article, materials were used:

Wikipedia

Sh. Alyautdinov “The Holy Quran. Meanings "

I. Alyautdinov “Know. Believe. Honor "