Famous for its rock-cut architecture and water conduit systems, Petra is also called the "Rose City" because of the colour of the sandstone from which it is carved. The area around Petra has been inhabited from as early as BC, [ 7 ] and was settled by the Nabataeans , a nomadic Arab people, in the 4th century BC.
Petra would later become the capital city of the Nabataean Kingdom in the second century BC. They were particularly skillful in agriculture , stone carving , and rainwater harvesting. Petra flourished in the 1st century AD, when its Al-Khazneh structure, possibly the mausoleum of Nabataean king Aretas IV , was constructed, and its population peaked at an estimated 20, inhabitants.
In the Byzantine era , several Christian churches were built, but the city continued to decline and, by the early Islamic era, it was abandoned except for a handful of nomads. It remained unknown to the western world until , when Swiss traveller Johann Ludwig Burckhardt rediscovered it. Visitor numbers reach close to a million tourists every year. The configuration of mountains in Petra allowed for a reservoir of water for the Edomites.
This made Petra a stopping ground for merchants , making it an outstanding area for trade. Things that were traded here included wines, olive oil, and wood. Initially, the Edomites were accompanied by Nomads who eventually left, but the Edomites stayed and made their mark on Petra before the emergence of the Nabataens.
It is said that 10, men were thrown off of the mountain Umm el-Biyara, but this story has been debated by scholars. The Nabataeans were one among several nomadic Bedouin tribes that roamed the Arabian Desert and moved with their herds to wherever they could find pasture and water. Instead, archaeological, religious and linguistic evidence confirm that they are a northern Arabian tribe. The Jewish historian Josephus ca. Josephus mentions that the city, called Petra by the Greeks, "ranks highest in the land of the Arabs" and was still called Rekeme by all the Arabs of his time, after its royal founder Antiquities iv.
