The main axis of the city is
provided by the course of the Wadi Mousa which,
upon emerging from the Siq, travels first
northwards and then turns sharply to the west in
the north section of the valley. The ancient
Nabatean road which ran along the river was
resurfaced and paved in the late Hellenistic and
Roman periods. This northern quarter is the heart
of the city, of which the main thoroughfare runs
east-west, from the area of the so-called royal
tombs to the sanctuary of the Qasr El Bint: this
street contained many monuments during the height
of the city's expansion, its main public and
religious buildings facing onto it. The only
public building at any distance from this cluster is the theatre: it is located a little to the
south of the main thoroughfare, because it was
necessary to exploit the slopes of a hill in its
construction. A complete picture cannot yet be
traced of the residential areas: while they must
have existed, only some of them have been
excavated. Some houses have been found in the area
of the Colonnade Street, and there are several
dwellings carved into the rock on the hillsides
around the urban area. In accordance with a custom
which was widespread in ancient cities, the
rock-hewn cemeteries are to be found in the
outlying areas, in this case to the south,
north-east and north-west of the urban centre.
 General view of the great
"Royal Tombs", which extend along the west side of
el-Kubtha, the massif which dominates
the valley of Petra from the East
The Theatre
The theatre stands on the
southern limits of the urban area, on the
north-east side of the Zibb' Attuf, at a point in
which the valley opens out: this area had
originally contained only a few rock-hewn tombs,
some of which were destroyed when the building was
erected. The seating area (cavea), consisting of
45 rows of seats divided into three horizontal
sectors (maeniana) by two intermediate corridors. (diazomata), is carved almost entirely out
of the rock; in order to get to their seats, the
audience made use of outwardly diverging
stairways dividing the tiers of seaing
into six vertical wedges. The 25-meter wide
semi-circular Orchestra is also carved out of the outcropping
bedrock. The 54-meter wide anterior part
of the stage (pulpitum) is divided
into rectangular niches, with a broader, semicircular niche
in the center: these niches were sealed
later on in antiquity when the theatre underwent restoration.
The stage wall (frons scaenae) consisted of a building erected
on two or perhaps three levels,
decorated with niches and columns (in grey stone and
yellow marble) bearing projecting entablatures, and embellished
with marble overlay and painted
plaster. The bottom level, which is well
preserved, contained three doors through which the actors
made their entrances: the largest one in the
middle (porta regia) was framed by a semicircular niche; the two
smaller ones on either side (portae hospitales) were
contained in rectangular niches.
The cavea and part of the stage-building viewed from the
interior of a hillside dwelling
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.
See
for your self Petra past, Petra
present. Click and drag underneath the
pictures to get an overall view of the developing
architect of the great
city.
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