Petra (Jordan)

As the two horse riders continued their journey, they found a pathway on both sides enclosed by overhanging rocks. The gorge became narrower and narrower. At last, between high – more than one hundred meters high – overhanging rocks of red sandstone, the path narrowed down to only two meters. The blue sky could only be seen through a narrow opening. The sun beams never penetrated this gorge. There was not a single bush, or a blade of grass between the stones. After about three hundred steps the gorge gave way and brought to a deep ravine separating the path from the overhanging slope of the mountain. Down its bottom shallow-water Wadi-Musa spring was streaming.

On the spring’s banks Burckhardt noticed remains of some paneling and further down an aqueduct built in between rocks, ruins and niches hewn in the rocks… In some of the niches pedestals for statues still remained. The opening between the rocks was enlarging. The astounded Burckhardt walked on, not being able to keep his eyes off the unbelievable spectacle that opened before him: steep rocks were thicker and thicker covered with relief ornamentations, eaves, low door openings – and all of it made one entity to form a huge and mysterious ensemble…

Suddenly, the ravine swung open. Burckhardt closed his eyes for just an instant because of the bright light, and when he opened them again, he was short of breath… Right in front of him against the background of a rock an ancient temple stood. Huge as it was, amazingly slender, mysteriously shimmering with pinkish-red light. Harmony and elegance of proportions, pink colour of the sandstone, from which the temple was built and, finally, its excellent intactness – everything was astounding. Nobody would have thought that in such a god and men forsaken place a great creation of great masters was hidden! Burckhardt, as if in a dream, walked toward the temple. Here he was shocked once again: what he mistook for a temple actually was a two-level façade skillfully cut in rock around 40 meters high. And the actual temple was in a cavern hidden behind it – it was a huge hall eight meters high cut right in the rock. The monumental and at the same time exquisite façade of the temple was richly decorated with columns, statues and relief female figures – women in fluttering clothes. On a lower portico the sun disc with cow’s horns was shining – a symbol of the Egyptian goddess Isis. On top of the porticos sculptures of guarding lions could be seen. Inside, the hall’s walls were smooth as well as the ceiling and only the wall with the entrance was decorated with carvings. Galleries cut in the rock led to inner chambers with columns. In every chamber there were colossal statues. In the semi-darkness Burckhardt was able to distinguish a figure of a woman sitting on a camel. And nearby there were small shrines… “What is that?” – amazed Burckhardt asked his guide – “It is the palace of the pharaoh, who once lived here. Then, after everybody died, the palace was turned into a shrine in his memory.” Having come out of the temple, they walked for another two hundred meters. Among the cliffs more and more temples cut in the rocks could be seen as well as palaces and shrines. All the facades were of a pyramidal form, but differed in highly varying decorations. Sometimes, it was hard to distinguish where the rock ended and a temple or a house began. But suddenly the rocks gave way for a big amphitheater. All its seats – and there were no less than three thousand of them – were also cut in the rock. The arena was covered with gravel, and if the wind had not blown it all around one could have thought that only the night before there was a performance staged there. Judging by its size, the theater’s capacity was up to four thousand spectators. Not far away from the theater there was a triumph arch that was obviously built in Roman times.

A valley densely spotted with ruins of houses, temples, mausoleums, piles of stone, remains of columns could be seen further on. The number of shrines alone counted by Burckhardt was more than 250. And all of them, judging by their architecture, were built in different historic periods…

That is how Petra was discovered – the legendary rock city.

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