Petra: Rock of Ages

Petra is the kind of place you see only in movies. Or in books. Or in the fragments of your memory.

Yes, you saw Petra in movies like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Arabian Nights. If you read novels like The Eagle in the Sand and Last Act in Palmyra, then you have been transported to Petra. If you are a Bible reader, then you know that Petra was the spot where Moses struck a rock with his staff and water came gushing out of it.

In your mind, Petra seems like an unbelievable sight, a fragment of your imagination aching for a voyage through time.

That was how I felt when I saw Petra. Is this place for real? Or a mirage in the desert? A movie setting created for Harrison Ford? My group of 15 traveling friends looked at the sight with unbelieving eyes and mouths agape.

Imagine a city cut in stone. No, make that a city built on rocks — huge mountains of rocks with colors ranging from yellow to red to brown. Imagine temples sculpted from sides of giant boulders that reach the sky. Imagine facades of ancient buildings jutting out of towering solid heights. Imagine a huge outdoor theater that can seat 3,500 within this rock-cut architecture.

So poetic a sight, too beautiful for words. Yet poet John William Burgon in 1845 described Petra in his prizewinning poem thus: “Rose-red as if the blush of dawn/that first beheld them were not yet withdrawn.” It was, he wrote, a city “half as old as time.”

 It was, in fact, a place forgotten by time. For centuries, Petra was largely unknown to the western world. Until 1812 when a Swiss explorer, Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, reminded the world that a magical place like Petra really did exist.

Petra is a prehistoric city in Jordan built on seven hills. Named after the Greek word meaning “stone,” Petra was the capital city of the Nabataeans around 312 B.C. Archaeologists reported that the tools uncovered in the area date back to 10,000 BC.

Enclosed by towering rocks, Petra seems like a natural fortress. The Nabataeans used it as a place of refuge to protect themselves from the forces of Greek Emperor Antigonus in 312 B.C. The sculpted buildings in Petra — I wonder, are they more like sculptures rather than buildings? — reflect elements from Greek, Roman and Egyptian civilizations between 400 B.C. and 400 A.D. Some of the images carved in Petra’s temples are said to be similar to the Egyptian goddess Isis.

Petra got its water from a stream and the Nabataeans could control water supply by building dams and a water system that enabled them to store water in case of a drought.

Petra is described in a travel brochure as the place in the desert prepared by God for the Jewish people. Biblical references to Petra are aplenty. In the Book of Kings, it is called “The Rock.” In Exodus, it is referred to as “the cleft in the rock.”

The Nabataeans worshipped Arab gods until the Islamic conquest. But it seems that it was Christianity that left the most geographic imprints on Petra. Not far away is Mt. Nebo where Moses viewed the Promised Land before he died. Near the plains of Petra is Aaron’s Mountain where Aaron, the brother of Moses, was buried. Some temples are said to have features of churches of the Christian era.

The most famous of the buildings carved out from Petra’s towering rocks is called The Treasury. According to legend, a cache of treasures was hidden in the urn on top of The Treasury. The Bedouins living in the caves around Petra have time and again tried to topple that urn in hopes of bathing under a gold shower.

A lot of Petra’s treasures surely have been stolen by thieves through the centuries. But more than the vandals and thieves, it is the havoc caused by earthquakes that robbed Petra of some of its strength and luster. Structures have weakened with age, erosion, flooding and improper restoration. Yet Petra remains awesome and beautiful. In 1985, it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was named by Smithsonian magazine as one of the “28 Places to See Before You Die.”

Petra has been romanticized not only in cinema and literature, but in theater as well. In 1977, the Kahbani brothers of Lebanon wrote the musical Petra to express their sentiments on the Lebanese Civil War.

Speaking of romance, Petra is the setting of a bestselling book, Married to a Bedouin by Marguerite Van Geldermalsen. It is the story of a nurse from New Zealand who visited Petra as a tourist. A Bedouin souvenir vendor named Mohammed Abdallah Othman asked her: “Why not stay with me tonight — in my cave?” She did stay — forever.

And then I met a British lady, Kara Chesire, who was a tourist guide for four years in Petra. One time, the group tour she was scheduled to handle was cancelled. A handsome 28-year-old Bedouin, Zohar Zohar, instead offered to take her on a personal tour — of his home. She fell in love with him. They got married in June of 2012.

These are but a few of love stories worth translating into films or novels. Indiana Jones and the Last Romance? Petran Nights? Perhaps. But this is the real Rock of Ages.

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For tours to Petra, contact Meteor Philippines Inc., the specialist in tours to Jordan, Israel, Egypt, Greece and Turkey, as well as Dubai, United Arab Emirates and European countries.With 20 years expertise in the travel industry, general manager Ligaya Tabirao offers the best value-for-money tours. Contact 0918-9125177, 0917-500-4596, 0922-8232688, 986-5137,or 687-1743.Email meteorphils@gmail.com and like Meteor Philippines on FB.