Petra: Lost City of Stone (2015)

Petra: Lost City of Stone is a documentary film, which premiered on US television (PBS) in 2015. It is an episode of the long-running program NOVA, which focuses on science and technology (season 42, episode 05). Here is some basic information about it:

** Writer and director: Gary Glassman
** Narrator: Jay O. Sanders
** Run time: 53 minutes

Many persons are interviewed in the film. Here are their names (in alphabetical order):

** Sue Alcock - Brown University

** Leigh-Ann Bedal – Penn State Erie, Behrend College
** Ueli Bellwald – archaeologist
** Cecilia Feldman – University of Massachusetts, Amherst

** Nathan J. Hunt – Hunt Studios

** Charles R. Ortloff – hydraulic engineer
** Thomas H. Paradise – University of Arkansas
** Blake Rankin – Hunt Studios

** Andrew M. Smith – George Washington University

** Christopher Tuttle – American Center of Oriental Research
** Thomas M. Urban – University of Oxford

Petra is an ancient city located in a desert in present-day Jordan. It was forgotten and unknown for centuries. It was “discovered” in 1812 by a Swiss adventurer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt who disguised himself as an Arab traveller in order to enter the place. 

Obviously, the local nomads of the desert had known about it all along, but they did not tell anyone about it.

Petra was the capital of an ancient desert people, the Nabataeans. It seems it was built during a period of ca 100 years, from 50 BC to AD 50. What makes Petra so special is the fact that the monuments are not built up from the ground; they are carved out of the rocks.

Most monuments in Petra are tombs, making it a city of the dead. But in antiquity, there were also houses where people lived and worked, making it a city of the living. 

Today, only the tombs are preserved. Apart from the theatre, all the houses where people lived and worked have disappeared.

The film-makers focus on four basic questions about Petra and the Nabataeans:

# 1. How could the Nabataeans build a city in the middle of the desert? Where did they find the money to do this?

# 2. How did they carve tall facades out of the rocks? What technique, what method did they use?

# 3. How did they deal with the problem of flash floods?

# 4. How did they secure water for the inhabitants of the city? More than 20,000 people. Water for drinking, cooking and washing?

All four questions are discussed in great detail and eventually answered in the film.

What do reviewers say about it? On IMDb it has a rating of 88 per cent, which corresponds to 4.4 stars on Amazon.

If you ask me, this average rating is quite appropriate. I want to go all the way to the top with this product. I think it deserves a rating of five stars.

PS # 1. For more information, see the following books:

** Petra: The Rose-Red City by Christian Auge and Jean-Marie Dentzer (2000 and 2006) (a short account, small format)

** Petra and the Lost Kingdom of the Nabataeans by Jane Taylor (2005)

** Petra: Splendors of the Nabataean Civilization by Francesca Arianna Osorio (2009) (a long and detailed account, large format)

PS # 2. If you are interested in ancient history, Petra is definitely worth a visit. I was there a few years ago (2011). Please notice: a visit to Petra is quite demanding. It involves a lot of walking and climbing up and down. It is not dangerous, but you must be fit, if you wish to visit all the major monuments in this place.

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