The ancient Nabatean capital of Petra was located in the wild vastness of “Sura”, ancient Seir, the land once inhabited by the Edomites.  

None had ever visited the site in the early modern period until the Anglo-swiss explorer, Johann Burkhardt, travelled there in 1812.  Burkhardt aspired to the life of an explorer from an early age. Despite his wealthy upbringing, he would go for days sleeping on a hard surface and subsisting on vegetables and water in order to harden his body for the rigours of travel.  He studied Arabic at Cambridge and then one day he boarded a boat and embarked on a life of solitude and danger.  The African Association hired him to cross the Sahara in search of the source of the Niger River.  It was an extremely hazardous undertaking.  And like so many others, his body weakened by fatigue, he eventually succumbed to sickness and died in Cairo.  But not before he had visited Mecca (one of the few) and Petra (the first).  His detailed journals make for fascinating reading.

Burkhardt began his journey in Damascus. 

He passed himself off as…?

From there he joined a caravan that took him down the ancient trade route on the east side of the Jordan known in Biblical times as the King’s Highway (Num. 20:17).  His road passed by Petra which the locals said was full of wonderful sites to behold.  But Petra lay some distance off the road to Cairo and Burkhardt needed some excuse to justify a visit.  He let it be known that he wished to sacrifice a goat to the “prophet Haroun” at the mountain where his tomb was located.¹Josephus, Eusebius and Jerome each mention a mountain in the vicinity of Petra which they identify with Mount Hor, the place where Aaron, the brother of Moses, was buried. (Num. 20:28)  The journey to this tomb, he knew, would take him past Petra.  Burkhardt tells of entering a beautiful well-watered valley called “the Valley of Moses”.  He speaks of the spring named ‘Ein Musa’ and of a trail that leads through a narrow canyon whose walls are so tall that no sunlight reaches the canyon bottom.  Finally, after a half-hour of walking through a “gloomy passage” the valley opens up and the eye is met with a truly stunning view

The mausoleum of which Burkhardt speaks was named the Treasury of Pharaoh by the Arabs, since it was believed that the giant stone urn at the top still contained a treasure.  This is just the first of many giant tombs carved into the rocks by the ancient Nabateans, who built their city here.

Trade

The primary source of Nabatean income was through trade across the Arabian peninsula.

The primary source of Nabatean power and influence came from their control of the desert trade routes that brought goods from Persia and Saba. Pliny the Elder described the Sabeans as the richest race on earth because they sold “that which was of the lightest weight for the highest price and bought nothing in return.” Pliny is referring, of course, to the trade in frankincense and myrrh. These aromatic resins are derived from shrubs that can only be grown in remote parts of Arabia and Africa. They were highly valued for their medicinal, cosmetic and religious uses. The Nabatean caravans were the primary means by which this valuable cargo was transported to the west.

Tombs

Strabo praises the Nabateans who he says are temperate and industrious.  “having few slaves, they are served for the most part by relations or by each other, or they serve themselves, and the custom extends even to the kings.”  Strabo goes on to say that their king does not rule absolutely but is rather a “first among equals.”   This is all believable, but then Strabo says something that is quite difficult to square with the archaeological evidence.

Strabo’s statement notwithstanding, Petra is most famous today for its magnificent tombs, carved into the faces of the cliffs that ring the city!  However, these tombs at Petra date the later half of the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, after Strabo wrote his account of the Nabataeans.  It is quite likely that Strabo is correct that the burial customs of the Nabataeans were once quite simple but that they grew more elaborate once they settled down to a more sedentary life and began to trade with the Greeks and Romans.

Notes

This picture is somewhat complicated by Abraham’s marriage to Keturah from whom it is said the Midianites descended along with Sheba and Dedan (elsewhere, Sheba and Dedan are children of Cush).   Moreover, other sons of Abraham by his concubines were sent away from Isaac ‘into the east’.

The Nabateans are described by Diodorus as a nomadic people who
assemble at a great rock without walls – probably a reference to their city in Petra.   Didorus further states that they write with Syrian letters which is presumably a form of Aramaic. 

The Nabateans quickly assimilated Hellenistic culture.  Dushares
became Zeus-Hadad and his image took on anthropomorphic features. However, the image of Zeus-Hadad retained eastern features that look very much like figurines that come from Iron Age sites belonging to the Ammonites and Moabites.  Glueck notes that the difference between Gerasa –  a Greek city of the Decapolis – and Petra was striking.  Nabatean art and architecture betrays its Arabian origin. 

The ancient Nabatean capital of Petra was located in the wild vastness of “Sura”, ancient Seir, the land once inhabited by the Edomites.  

None had ever visited the site in the early modern period until the Anglo-swiss explorer, Johann Burkhardt, travelled there in 1812.  Burkhardt aspired to the life of an explorer from an early age. Despite his wealthy upbringing, he would go for days sleeping on a hard surface and subsisting on vegetables and water in order to harden his body for the rigours of travel.  He studied Arabic at Cambridge and then one day he boarded a boat and embarked on a life of solitude and danger.  The African Association hired him to cross the Sahara in search of the source of the Niger River.  It was an extremely hazardous undertaking.  And like so many others, his body weakened by fatigue, he eventually succumbed to sickness and died in Cairo.  But not before he had visited Mecca (one of the few) and Petra (the first).  His detailed journals make for fascinating reading.

Burkhardt began his journey in Damascus. 

He passed himself off as…?

From there he joined a caravan that took him down the ancient trade route on the east side of the Jordan known in Biblical times as the King’s Highway (Num. 20:17).  His road passed by Petra which the locals said was full of wonderful sites to behold.  But Petra lay some distance off the road to Cairo and Burkhardt needed some excuse to justify a visit.  He let it be known that he wished to sacrifice a goat to the “prophet Haroun” at the mountain where his tomb was located.¹Josephus, Eusebius and Jerome each mention a mountain in the vicinity of Petra which they identify with Mount Hor, the place where Aaron, the brother of Moses, was buried. (Num. 20:28)  The journey to this tomb, he knew, would take him past Petra.  Burkhardt tells of entering a beautiful well-watered valley called “the Valley of Moses”.  He speaks of the spring named ‘Ein Musa’ and of a trail that leads through a narrow canyon whose walls are so tall that no sunlight reaches the canyon bottom.  Finally, after a half-hour of walking through a “gloomy passage” the valley opens up and the eye is met with a truly stunning view

The mausoleum of which Burkhardt speaks was named the Treasury of Pharaoh by the Arabs, since it was believed that the giant stone urn at the top still contained a treasure.  This is just the first of many giant tombs carved into the rocks by the ancient Nabateans, who built their city here.

Trade

The primary source of Nabatean income was through trade across the Arabian peninsula.

The primary source of Nabatean power and influence came from their control of the desert trade routes that brought goods from Persia and Saba. Pliny the Elder described the Sabeans as the richest race on earth because they sold “that which was of the lightest weight for the highest price and bought nothing in return.” Pliny is referring, of course, to the trade in frankincense and myrrh. These aromatic resins are derived from shrubs that can only be grown in remote parts of Arabia and Africa. They were highly valued for their medicinal, cosmetic and religious uses. The Nabatean caravans were the primary means by which this valuable cargo was transported to the west.

Tombs

Strabo praises the Nabateans who he says are temperate and industrious.  “having few slaves, they are served for the most part by relations or by each other, or they serve themselves, and the custom extends even to the kings.”  Strabo goes on to say that their king does not rule absolutely but is rather a “first among equals.”   This is all believable, but then Strabo says something that is quite difficult to square with the archaeological evidence.

Strabo’s statement notwithstanding, Petra is most famous today for its magnificent tombs, carved into the faces of the cliffs that ring the city!  However, these tombs at Petra date the later half of the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, after Strabo wrote his account of the Nabataeans.  It is quite likely that Strabo is correct that the burial customs of the Nabataeans were once quite simple but that they grew more elaborate once they settled down to a more sedentary life and began to trade with the Greeks and Romans.

Notes

This picture is somewhat complicated by Abraham’s marriage to Keturah from whom it is said the Midianites descended along with Sheba and Dedan (elsewhere, Sheba and Dedan are children of Cush).   Moreover, other sons of Abraham by his concubines were sent away from Isaac ‘into the east’.

The Nabateans are described by Diodorus as a nomadic people who
assemble at a great rock without walls – probably a reference to their city in Petra.   Didorus further states that they write with Syrian letters which is presumably a form of Aramaic. 

The Nabateans quickly assimilated Hellenistic culture.  Dushares
became Zeus-Hadad and his image took on anthropomorphic features. However, the image of Zeus-Hadad retained eastern features that look very much like figurines that come from Iron Age sites belonging to the Ammonites and Moabites.  Glueck notes that the difference between Gerasa –  a Greek city of the Decapolis – and Petra was striking.  Nabatean art and architecture betrays its Arabian origin.