PE'TRA (Lat., from Gk. rirpa, rock). An ancient city of Northern Arabia, in the 'desert of Edom,' about 70 miles northeast of Akabah (Map: Turkey in Asia, 1' 7). It occupied a nar row rocky valley. overhung by mountains, the highest and best known being Mount Hor, direct ly to the west. Petra owes its name to its pe culiar character as a 'rock-city,' which also gave it the Hebrew name, Scla', 'rock' (11. Kings xiv. 7: Is. xvi. I). Its importance was due to its location on the great highway from the Red Sea and Arabia northward, while its situation pro tected it from Bedouin raids. It thus became an important centre of trade. In the ninth century n.c. it was captured by King Amaziah of Judah, who changed the name to joktheel, according to II. Kings xiv. 7. In the second or third cen tury B.C. it into the hands of the Nabateans (q.v.). From the time of Pompey it was tribu tary to the Romans. In 105 Trajan made a prov ince of Arabia Petrirn (the immune being taken from the city) and Hadrian granted certain privi leges to the town. Christianity was introduced at an early period and Petra became the seat of a bishop. In the fourth or fifth century trade be gan to follow other channels and the importance p, Ira After the Mohammedan con t tl e site was unknown to Europeans til early in the nineteenth century, when it wis visited by Seetzen and Burckhardt. fsince then the remarkable remains of Petra have be come well known. They stand in a small open irregular basin. about half a mile square, through which runs a brook, and are best ap proached by an extraordinary chasm or ravine called the ;:ik (or Wady Musa), narrowing as it proceeds till in some places the width is only feet. while the rocky walls of red sandstone
tower to the height of 80 to 200 feet. llardly a ray of sunlight call pierce this gloomy gorge, yet it was once the highway to Petra, and the re mains of an ancient pavement can be traced be neath the brilliant oleanders that now cover the pathway. All along the face of the rocky walls are rows of cave tombs, hewn out of the solid stone, and ornamented with facades. These are also numerous elsewhere in and about the city. The principal ruins are: (I) E1-Khaznek ('the treasure house'), believed by the natives to con tain, buried somewhere in its sacred inelosure, the treasures of Pharaoh; it directly faces the mouth of the gorge of Wady Musa and was prob ably the great temple of the Petreans; (2) the amphitheatre, capable of containing from 3000 to 4000 spectators; (3) certain remarkable tombs; (4) the Pair or convent, a huge mono lithic temple, hewn out of the side of a cliff and facing Mount Dor; (5) the citadel; (6) Kos, Fir 'min, or Pharaoh's palace, the best preserved ruin of Petra, east of which are the remains of a triumphal arch. Most of the architecture is Greek of the third or fourth century, lint forms of native art arc intermixed, and there are also traces of Egyptian influence, pyramidal forms hieing not unknown. Consult: Laborde and Linant, Voyage duns ('Arabic Petree (Paris, 1830) ; De Lrcncis, Voyage au, bords de la .1Ier Norte, Petra. etc. (ib.. 1875) : Palmer, The Desert of the Exodus (Cambridge. 1871): Visconti, Diario di an ?.iaggio in Arabia Petrca (Rome, 1872).