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The City
Plan
Petra rises in a broad valley
surrounded by high mountains, and it is
naturally protected by the series of canyons
formed by the river which flows through the city,
the Wadi Mousa, and by other secondary
watercourses. In ancient times the only easy means
to reach to the valley consisted, then as now,
of a narrow gorge carved by the Wadi Mousa known
as the Siq, which is up to 80 meters high, about
two kilometres long and of varying width: at some
points its rock walls are very close, while the
points at which the ravine broadens out were the
conceivable locations of caravanserai and camp
sites. In order to contain winter flooding, the
waters of the Wadi Mousa were checked by adam at
the eastern end of the Siq and directed along it
towards the city through
 Rock dwelling in
the wall in front of the theatre
an ingenious system of
channels and cisterns: the channel was partly
carved out of the rock and partly built
artificially, of stone, clay, plaster and
earthenware piping. This structure provided the
city, which also boasted fountains and gardens at
the peak of its development, with a permanent
water supply. At its western end the Siq opens out
into the valley in which the city was built, which
is shaped like an amphitheatre, surrounded by
walls of rock. The stages of the development of
Petra's city-plan are not yet entirely clear, but
new studies and archaeological investigations
carried out in recent years have added
considerably to the available data. What seems to
have been established is that the Nabateans did
not create an urban centre in the true sense of
the word right from the start, but a simple
settlement of semi-nomadic type,
The eastern section of
the Colonnade Street that crossed the central urban area," in
the background the "Royal Tombs"
consisting small,
modest dwellings of stones and clay. These
archaeological findings confirm what we know from
historical sources, which describe the 3rd century
BC inhabitants of Petra as a nomadic people
lacking permanent dwellings. Only later, towards the
end of the lst century BC, did the city
acquire monuments of broader scope, luxury homes
and elaborate gardens, thanks to progressive
political and economic development. The city's
oldest system of defence works dates back to this
period. This was basically a series of isolated
posts fortified in order to defend those points with
the least natural protection.
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