Decline and Rediscovery of Petra

Decline and Rediscovery of Petra

by Alaa Ababneh, PhD Candidate at Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona

Decline

By the late sixth century CE, Petra entered a period of steady decline driven by a combination of natural, economic, and political factors. Repeated earthquakes severely damaged the city’s infrastructure, weakening buildings and disrupting daily life. At the same time, shifts in regional trade patterns undermined Petra’s economic foundations. As maritime trade routes expanded, long-distance overland commerce declined, and nearby ports such as Aqaba diverted trade away from the inland city.

Political changes further accelerated Petra’s decline. The rise of new powers in the region, particularly the Islamic Caliphates in the seventh century, reshaped political and economic networks and reduced Petra’s importance as an urban center. By the end of the seventh century, the once-thriving city had largely been abandoned, its monumental architecture falling into ruin and its former prominence fading from historical memory.

Rediscovery

The modern rediscovery of Petra began with the visit of the Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt on August 22, 1812. Traveling through Transjordan on a journey from Aleppo to Cairo, Burckhardt learned of the ancient city and set out to find it. Disguised as an Arab traveler under the name Sheikh Ibrahim ibn Abdallah, he gained access to the site. His accounts were published after his death, beginning in 1819 in English under the name John Lewis Burckhardt and shortly thereafter in German, bringing Petra to the attention of European scholars.

Interest in Petra grew quickly. In May 1818, British naval officers Charles Leonard Irby and James Mangles visited the site for two days along with a group of eleven people. Among them was William John Bankes, whose drawings remain some of the earliest visual records of Petra.

In 1828, French explorers Léon de Laborde and Louis Maurice Adolphe Linant de Bellefonds spent six days documenting Petra’s ruins through detailed drawings and written descriptions. Their work was published between 1830 and 1833 in Voyage de l’Arabie Pétrée, a richly illustrated volume that included lithographs, maps, and travel observations. An English translation released in 1836 introduced Petra to a wider audience and shaped European perceptions of the site throughout the nineteenth century.

Systematic scholarly exploration began at the end of the nineteenth century. Between 1897 and 1898, Rudolf-Ernst Brünnow and Alfred von Domaszewski conducted extensive surveys of Petra. Their publication, Die Provincia Arabia (1904), cataloged the city’s tombs and monuments and remains a foundational reference for Petra studies. Their work combined careful descriptions with photographs, drawings, and detailed maps.

Building on this research, Danish archaeologist Alfred Hilary McAlpin Dalman published Petra und seine Felsheiligtümer in 1908, providing further descriptions and illustrations. His numbering system for Petra’s monuments is still widely used by scholars today.

During World War I, the German-Turkish Monument Protection Command, led by Theodor Wiegand, conducted a two-week survey of Petra in 1916. Although no excavations were carried out, their mapping and photographic documentation, published in 1921, significantly advanced understanding of Petra as a complex urban settlement. Their work demonstrated that the famous rock-cut tomb façades were often part of larger architectural complexes, such as the Soldier Tomb complex.

With the establishment of the Emirate of Transjordan under British Mandate rule in 1921, the Department of Antiquities was founded in Amman in 1923. This institution continues to oversee archaeological research and preservation in Jordan.

The first systematic excavation at Petra was conducted by Agnes Conway and George Horsfield, who served as Chief Inspector of Antiquities in Transjordan between 1928 and 1936. Since then, numerous international and Jordanian teams have carried out excavations across the site. Despite this long history of research, it is estimated that only about 20 percent of Petra has been archaeologically explored.

Until the late twentieth century, approximately 140 families from the Bedouin Bdul tribe lived in Petra’s caves and tombs. To protect the site and support archaeological work and tourism, the Jordanian government relocated these families to the nearby village of Umm Sayhoun. Many members of the Bdul community now work in Petra as guides, guards, and excavation assistants.

In 1985, Petra was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, recognized as “one of the world’s most famous archaeological sites, where ancient Eastern traditions blend with Hellenistic architecture.” In 1993, the Jordanian government established a 264-square-kilometer protected zone around Petra, known as Petra National Park or Petra Archaeological Park, administered by the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.

Bibliography:

• Joukowsky, Martha Sharp. (1999). “A Brief History of Petra.” Brown University. https://www.brown.edu/Departments/Joukowsky_Institute/Petra/excavations/history.html
• “The Ancient City of Petra.” The American Museum of Natural History. https://www.amnh.org/explore/ology/archaeology/the-ancient-city-of-petra2
• Wilke, Carolyn. “Who built the ‘lost city’ of Petra—and why did they leave?” National Geographic. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/lost-city-petra
• “The Man Who Discovered a ‘Lost’ Wonder of the World.” University of Cambridge. https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/the-man-who-discovered-a-lost-wonder-of-the-world
• Markoe, Glenn, Cincinnati Art Museum, and American Museum of Natural History. Petra Rediscovered: Lost City of the Nabataeans. New York: Harry N. Abrams in association with the Cincinnati Art Museum, 2003. Print.

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