Petra

"A Red-Rose City..."

The ancient city of Petra in Jordan remained hidden from the Western world for more than 500 years after the Crusades in 12th century. In 1812 the "lost city" was finally rediscovered by Swiss explorer, Johann Ludwig Burckhardt after he became interested in the tales and legends of Petra. Burckhardt disguised himself as a Muslim under the name, Ibrahim ibn Abdullah, and convinced a guide to take him to Petra saying he wanted to make a sacrifice to the Prophet Aaron. After hundreds of years, someone outside of the Middle East had finally witnessed the great city.

However Petra was still inhospitable and unwelcoming to strangers from the Western, modern world until the 1920s. Soon enough Petra was declared as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO and excavations were conducted on behalf of the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem and later the American Center of Oriental Research. Not too long ago in 1993, more intense excavations revealed structures such as temples and monuments.

Petra's location between the Red Sea and the Dead Sea allowed for a plethora of cultures to be woven into this ancient city. It was known that Petra served as an important trading city between the Hellenistic empire and the more Eastern states such as Arabia, China and India for items such as incense, silk and spices. Other than its commercial important, Petra is praised for its extraordinary architecture and landscape, for it half-built and half-carved into a rock and is also surrounded by mountains that contain riddles and secrete passageways. Because it is set in a dominating red sandstone environment, it has become one of the richest and largest world heritage sites.

As more information was accumulated of this world heritage site, its popularity escalated very rapidly. John William Burgon even memorialized the beautiful site in his poem saying it was " a rose-red city half as old as time". Petra became the setting for the popular movies such as Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Arabian Nights, and the more recent Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Also in 2007, Petra was enlisted as one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. Due to all this media coverage, tourists flocked to see the beautiful city causing more damage than imagined to the valued site. Although the past was being preserved mentally as people gained more interest, it was being deteriorated physically as the monuments and and buildings were eroded through human interaction.

 Although considerable efforts have been enforced in order to preserve what was left of the Petra, the official tourist site of Jordan encourages people to travel to their country in order to learn about the magnificent city. "Although much has been written about Petra, nothing really prepares you for this amazing place. It has to be seen to be believed". After our class had discussed the motives behind countries in attracting tourists, it is evident that Jordan favors commercial success over the preservation of such delicate and fragile sites.




 http://www.sacred-destinations.com/jordan/petra-history
 http://www.visitjordan.com/default.aspx?tabid=63
 http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/326