Page 66 - All About History - Issue 72-18

Frankincense and Myrrh
Less ornate
dwellings offer
a glimpse of
Petra as a living
settlement
her and marry his brother’s wife, a union which
causedascandal.JohntheBaptistwasoutspoken
in his condemnation of this immoral marriage,
and it was this opposition that led to Herod’s
decision to have him beheaded. So, once again,
weseetheNabataeanKingdomplayingarolein
other, better-known regimes.
But it is Aretas who leads us straight back to
Petra, where the people demonstrated a flair for
the theatrical with the city’s main entrance via
a natural ravine that splits the towering rocks
for almost a mile. Once through it, the visitor is
confronted with the most famous site in Petra, Al
Khazneh, or the Treasury.
66
Although
Jordan is rarely in
the news for violent
reasons, safety concerns
in the Middle East have
reduced visitor numbers,
which are now
half a million each
year
It is said that the name comes from the
riches stored in the great urn at the top of the
circular building at the facade’s centre. In reality,
the structure is thought to be the mausoleum
of Aretas IV. The statues at the front of this
magnificent edifice clearly relate to the pagan
gods of both Rome and Greece, and show that
Greco-Roman polytheism was alive and well even
outside of the Roman Empire. It is also a reminder
that not only did the Nabataean Kingdom have the
ability to spread soft power through many regions
and empires by means of trade, but in turn, those
trade routes brought back other cultures and
concepts, including theology.
“The statues at the
front of this magnificent
edifice clearly relate to
the pagan gods of both
Rome and Greece ”
A Roman oil lamp
dating from the
1st century CE, it
may have been
produced in Petra
Although protected from sight by the natural
ravine, Petra was poorly defended and very rich.
It was, therefore, an obvious target for attack,
and yet, it was surprisingly hard to conquer. The
kingdom was notorious for its dry and desolate
location, so sending a large army to conquer
what was, in essence, a desert would almost
invariably lead to that invading force having to
retreat due to lack of water. The standard tactic
of these desert-dwelling Bedouin forces of the
Nabataean Kingdom was to harry invading armies
and then melt away to allow the heat and lack of
water to do their work for them, while their own
forces replenished their water supplies at hidden