Peter

The city, carved into the rocks on the western slopes of the array Dzhabalash - Shara is an unusual place, Petra, carved into the rock city, the ancient capital of the Nabataean kingdom, which from the III century BC. er. the I century AD. er. possessed the territories of modern Middle East. Until today there remain a large complex of temples, tombs and houses carved into the hillsides of red sandstone. Sandstone buildings attached pinkish - red. Probably for this reason Nabatiyah called Peter, "Cancer - mu" - "colorful". Nucleation time of Petra goes back to much earlier times, to the Paleolithic and Neolithic. Archaeological studies show that around 1200 BC this place was inhabited by Edomites. This Semitic nation in antiquity had lived in the hill country of Edom, situated on the territory of modern Israel and Jordan. Nabatiyah arrived here from the Arabian Peninsula, most likely in the VI century BC. During their rule the city flourished and became an important center on the trade route from India to Egypt, as well as from southern Arabia to Syria. It is in Peter stopped merchants who traveled from China to the Apennine peninsula. Here, collected tribute from caravans carrying spices, incense, gold, silver, ivory and silk. Very advanced for the times of technology and legendary riches are not able to provide Peter peaceful existence. In the I century AD Romans drove the Nabataeans to pay tribute at the turn of 105 -106 years of the Emperor Trajan turned their state into the set up while the province of Arabia. In later centuries, the way the caravans began to pass through another route. This provoked started with the III century AD, the gradual decline of the city. Most of the residents had left Peter in the IV century after a series of earthquakes. When in the VII century the Arabs conquered it, the city was already only a memory of the past glory. For many hundreds of years it remained in oblivion. The existence of Petra was known only to the Bedouins, carefully watch over her from strangers. Peter returned to the world the Swiss traveler Johann Ludwig Burckhardt. In 1812, traveling from Damascus to Cairo, he heard stories about the beautiful, carved in the rock town in the mountains. These stories seemed to him so implausible that it has decided with my own eyes to verify their validity. Trick with the consent, he entered into the valley, and what he saw exceeded his wildest expectations. Following this discovery, archaeologists have appeared in Peter only in 1929, and most of the city was opened in 1958. Today, Peter has been listed as World Heritage by UNESCO.