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NARRATOR: In the Jordanian desert,
an incredible ancient treasure still stands,
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the monumental city of Petra.
Built over 2,000 years ago by the ancient Nabatean civilization,
Petra's construction is colossal,
with monuments, tombs, and temples carved into the sides of cliffs.
DAVID GRAF: The nature of Petra as a rock-carved city is really unique.
There are not other places with this many tombs,
and this kind of architecture.
NARRATOR: To sustain this ancient desert city,
its engineers built a water supply system
with channels and pipelines that transformed Petra into a desert oasis...
filled with lush gardens, a pool, and a thermal spa.
THOMAS R. PARADISE: You just didn't have water that was available during seasons;
you had water available all year.
NARRATOR: Even today, the achievements
of Petra's engineers are astounding.
They made a region of harsh, arid mountains
into a prosperous city of over 20,000 people,
and an ancient trading capital.
THIBAUD FOURNET (in French): What's fascinating
about the culture of the Nabateans is that
in less than two centuries, they built an exceptional city.
A blend of extreme luxury and exuberance
that makes Petra so wonderful.
NARRATOR: Now, experts take us behind the scenes
to finally see how this ancient culture
carved cliffside monuments that still stand today.
Discover how this forbidding landscape
became the amazing city of Petra.
The ancient city of Petra stands a 200-kilometer journey
south from Jordan's capital, Amman.
Halfway between the Red Sea and the Dead Sea,
Petra is strategically located in a valley at the end of a narrow canyon.
It's an astounding sight,
with monuments carved into the rock face on all sides.
Built over 2,000 years ago,
the ancient people who constructed the city were known as the Nabateans.
But why did these nomadic merchants
build their city in a remote desert canyon?
PARADISE: Petra was the perfect crossroads;
it was a nexus of commerce.
So, you have north-south trade
that involved frankincense and myrrh,
and then turquoise and peridot, and gemstones coming from the south.
Then you have the east-west trade coming through, which is now Kuwait,
that would've brought silk and Chinese goods in from the east.
So, there's no coincidence that Petra was the perfect location to build a city,
and a city that would boom within hundreds of years
to thousands of inhabitants.
NARRATOR: In addition to its location at the nexus of valuable trade routes,
Petra also had other advantages.
Its steep hillsides provided a natural defense against invaders.
The city's builders constructed control towers at its highest points
to secure the area.
The entry point for the city passed through a narrow gorge
formed by erosion, called the Siq.
Petra stood at the junction of multiple dry stream valleys, called wadis,
which the Nabateans used to direct rain flow and spring water to the city.
You're in a desert, water is scarce,
and what you find is a large basin,
where water drains from a couple of directions.
So the original inhabitants of Petra
understood that where water converges
is probably the most important thing to look for for a desert city.
It's not a coincidence. It's not an arbitrary location.
It's the perfect location, where you have water and then trade,
commerce, a flat valley that would be ideal for a city center.
Petra is the best location within one or 200 miles easily,
if not 1,000 miles, to build a city.
NARRATOR: The Nabateans built their hidden city in just 200 years.
The entry point through the Siq led to a vast plain
that became the city center,
home to 20,000 to 30,000 people in the first century AD.
Nearly 3,000 monuments and buildings decorated the city
and its surrounding cliffsides.
The six-square kilometer city became the capital of the Nabatean kingdom.
These master architects built the lavish Khazneh, or treasury,
near the entrance to the city.
The structure is decorated with details
that show the influence of Greek and Egyptian architecture.
High columns are topped with ornate Corinthian capitals...
and the entrance is flanked by statues
of the Greek mythological figures Castor and Pollux.
The second level features a tholos,
a circular Greek structure,
surrounded by sculptures of Egyptian and Greek deities
worn down by 2,000 years of erosion.
At the top, a massive urn stands 3.5 meters high.
Inside lies a vast hall, opening onto three large rooms.
But unlike the exterior, the inside of the structure is plain,
with the walls left completely bare.
GRAF: The function of the Khazneh remains a... a puzzling question.
And it has been speculated that it was a tomb
for one of the Nabatean kings.
Possibly, it was a tomb for the great Nabatean king
Aretas IV.
But this is only guesswork.
Uh, we really don't know who was buried there,
and there are no inscriptions at any of the tombs
to give us some idea of who this tomb represents.
NARRATOR: The Khazneh was carved out of a sandstone cliff
that stands 80 meters high.
For workers to carve out this massive structure,
Petra's architects had to rethink their usual building methods.
A typical bottom-to-top plan would be impossible
when carving from a cliff.
JEAN-CLAUDE BESSAC (in French): Had they started from the bottom,
it would've been impossible for them to know where to begin
so that the wall would be plumb,
because the cliffsides are not always perpendicular.
They can be slightly slanted, and that's very difficult to calculate.
There's another big problem that comes with
chipping away from above yourself, and that's namely the risk of debris
falling on the laborers below.
NARRATOR: So, they carved the Khazneh from top to bottom.
But the structure's sides soar nearly 40 meters high.
How did the workers get to the top to even start carving?
Scaffolding makes sense, but in the desert, wood was scarce.
PARADISE: If we look at the pollen record in Petra,
we notice that trees were not much more abundant than they are today.
And the trees that did exist in the area are similar to trees we see today:
Juniper and Oak.
The climate hasn't changed enough to change the variety of trees.
So trees did grow then, but they grew sparsely.
They were not common at all.
So the use of scaffolding
would have been a very, very rare luxury for the Nabateans to have.
NARRATOR: Without wood to build scaffolding,
Petra's architects got creative,
and their methods are still visible on the mountain today.
HANI FALAHAT (in Arabic): When the Nabateans decided
to build the facade of the Khazneh,
they had to prepare the area so they could reach the mountaintop
before even beginning construction.
And then they sculpted it from the top down.
To do that, they build a staircase. And they built it wide enough
to allow the workers to comfortably go up and down
even while carrying their tools.
There was a bridge over there that allowed them to get from
the staircase to the front on the other side.
They went around the back of the mountain in order to get to the summit,
and then they carved out the top of the Khazneh.
NARRATOR: After climbing the first part of the staircase,
visitors reach a huge cave.
A shelter carved out by workers at the start of construction.
FALAHAT (in Arabic): This cave was where the laborers who were assigned the
construction of the Khazneh stored the tools they needed.
They would meet here at the beginning of the day,
then they would take the bridge to go around the mountain
and then they'd begin sculpting the rock.
NARRATOR: Even the preparation for the monument was impressive,
but it was all to set the stage for the construction to come.
Experts say the ancient architects used certain methods
to carve the Khazneh straight out of the rock.
The first step was to carve a ledge in the cliffside.
Then, the workers could use the ledge to access the face of the rock
and began carving the gigantic urn at the top.
Next, they dug two vertical trenches on either side.
Then the ledge was carved further,
and another section of the Khazneh began to take shape.
A series of indentations likely served as ladders,
so workers could reach the different levels of the structure.
They continued this process until they finally reached the bottom.
There was no room for mistakes.
Once they completed a level, they couldn't reach it again later.
The smallest mistake would stay carved into the rock
for thousands of years.
The remnants of the vertical trenches and enclaves are still visible today.
Reminders of this massive undertaking by Petra's ancient architects.
Experts believe the builders finished the job in less than four years.
Two kilometers from here,
another one of the city's monuments was also carved
entirely from the rock.
It's called Ad Deir.
It's not an easy place to reach.
Through a narrow path and up over 800 stone steps,
the colossal structure towers over the city below.
The exterior of Ad Deir is less ornate
and more abstract than the Khazneh's figurative decoration,
but both structures feature imposing columns
supporting two levels of pediments and a tholos.
Ad Deir also features a ten meter high urn at the top of its tholos.
GRAF: During the Christian period,
it was developed into a monastery.
But in the earlier period,
its purpose seems to have been originally a tomb.
Uh, who was buried there, and when, is a matter of speculation again,
but it is one of the most magnificent tombs at Petra,
along with the Khazneh.
NARRATOR: At first, it seems Ad Deir was built
the same way as the Khazneh,
since both monuments were carved entirely from the rock.
But the cliffs are less steep than the Khazneh.
The sides of the rock around Ad Deir slope more gently toward the ground,
so workers could use different methods to carve this structure.
Getting started was also relatively easier.
Workers could climb the slope to the top,
making the carving of the urn a much simpler task.
Building the rest of the structure took two stages.
The first was to create a giant set of steps across the face of the rock,
eliminating the excess rock so the vertical facade could take shape.
Then, workers carved Ad Deir step by step
from top to bottom.
To the untrained eye,
the sculpture work on Ad Deir may seem almost crude.
The columns and their capitals are simple and abstract,
and the pediments are sparely decorated.
But the structure's simplicity belies a superior level of mastery.
BESSAC (in French): Contrary to what most people think,
it's easier to make a capital
that's decorated with something like acanthus leaves, or any ornate capital,
because that gives you something to work around.
In case you make any mistakes while carving it out,
you can always slightly change the shape of a leaf
so that it hides your mistake and no one sees it.
However, with clean, straight lines, the slightest error becomes visible.
That means you have to be much
more careful and rigorous in your work.
In other words, there's absolutely no room for error.
NARRATOR: Ad Deir's smooth columns and refined lines
are the result of incredible skill.
Even more impressive,
they were all carved out of the mountain in one piece.
When a structure is made of stone blocks assembled together,
carvers can choose them individually before beginning their work.
Not possible here.
The sculptors worked up against the rocky wall,
digging centimeter by centimeter.
Every step had to be perfect.
BESSAC (in French): If workers broke something by mistake,
if the stone had a weak spot,
or if any part of the cornice or the capital broke off,
well, that was it,
it's not like you could just replace the piece in question.
The slightest error was fatal to the entire project and was irreparable.
NARRATOR: The lost city of Petra is home
to over 2,700 monuments and structures carved from the rock.
Millions of years of erosion shaped the landscape
before it was sculpted by human tools,
revealing the many layers of sandstone in all their colors.
GRAF: The nature of Petra as a rock-carved city is really unique.
Uh, there are not other places with this many tombs,
and this kind of architecture.
The number of these rock-carved, uh, areas is unparalleled
anywhere in the Mediterranean world.
Petra is, is, uh, unique. Exceptional in this regard.
NARRATOR: In addition to the rock-carved monuments,
the city also housed many more stone structures
built using traditional construction methods.
The sandstone used to build the freestanding structures
came from nearby construction sites.
When carving their cliffside monuments,
workers shaped and reused the large amounts of stone
removed from the mountains.
Many of the more traditional buildings have been destroyed
or buried in the sand after 2,000 years.
The number of buildings Petra once contained
remains unknown,
but experts say they were more than just the leftover stone extracted
from cliffside constructions.
The builders also drew from sources outside Petra.
Archaeological excavations have found 14 stone quarries around the city,
where workers extracted thousands of cubic meters
of multicolored sandstone.
Southeast of the city, at the summit of Jebel al-Madhbah,
lies one of the biggest stone quarries.
The extraction of huge stone blocks,
weighing hundreds of kilos, would have taken years.
The workers' only tools were a pick, a mallet,
and an iron wedge.
Two stone obelisks,
each almost seven meters high,
are all that remain to show the rock's original height.
HANI M.K. AL-NAWAFLEH: These columns left behind are sign and witness, uh,
about the, uh, volume of the rock
that were extracted from this particular quarry,
which counts for at least
tens of thousands of cubic meters.
NARRATOR: Petra's most impressive stone quarry is at Wadi As-Siyagh.
Here, workers dug out the floor to extract almost 30 meters of rock.
But at the bottom,
they discovered sandstone of much higher quality.
So they dug further, directly into the bottom of the cliff,
carving out an opening over eight meters long.
AL-NAWAFLEH: This kind of sand is quite hard,
so it is more resistant than the others.
It is characterized by its yellowish-brown color.
So, huge amounts of rocks
were excavated from this quarry.
It is estimated that the quantities of the rock,
which is extracted from this quarry alone,
more than 31,000 meter cube.
NARRATOR: Even after removing the blocks of sandstone from the mountain,
the workers still had to move them to the city.
How they did that remains a mystery.
LAURENT THOLBECQ (in French): It's quite rare to find traces
of how the rocks were transported.
You have to keep in mind that these quarries have been exposed
to the elements without an interruption for 2,000 years,
so many of the stones have been significantly eroded.
Any traces potentially left behind by rock movement
have completely disappeared or have been covered up
by later construction, debris, or even by soil.
That's what 2,000 years will do.
NARRATOR: That hasn't stopped archaeologists
from offering theories based on local topography.
PARADISE: The quarries are all found above the valley.
They're not at the lower portion of the valley.
So the quarries where the rock was removed
to use for construction in Petra
are all found either at the same level or above.
So simple roller tools
could've been used to haul the rock down.
NARRATOR: The workers probably used simple wooden rollers to move the stone.
Logs would have been placed on top of two larger parallel tree trunks.
The stone blocks could then be rolled down the slope to the city.
One of the most impressive monuments built using sandstone blocks
mined from the quarries is the Great Temple.
The enormous building stretches to 7,000 square meters.
Despite its name, it was probably not used as a temple,
but as a central administrative building,
or as the public section of the royal palace.
The massive entrance porch leads to a series of rooms
and hallways surrounded by columns.
Was this a courtroom?
Or an assembly area?
Its intended purpose has been lost to time.
Now, only ruins remain of this once imposing building.
But its massive stone blocks raise another archaeological mystery.
How did the builders raise these stones
35 meters into the air without scaffolding?
Petra's architects left no written record.
But the methods used by the Romans
and other civilizations provide a few theories.
THOLBECQ (in French): There are a few machines
that were made out of wood
and that would make it possible to lift big stones.
The most commonly-used machines were what we call lifting jacks.
The idea is to have two beams attached together using cables,
and then raise the stone off a pulley.
Using the swinging motion of the machine,
they could get the stone closer to the wall.
NARRATOR: Another type of lifting device is called a derrick.
Made up of a single large wooden beam,
it is placed in a hole in the ground to anchor it.
On the other end, pulleys are connected to two cords attached to the ground,
and a third cord tied around the rock.
Using a pendulum-like movement,
the rock can be lifted and positioned
anywhere in the construction site.
BESSAC (in French): Derricks are more practical than lifting jacks.
The latter can only move in one direction and they don't turn.
Using a derrick, it's easy to pick up a block on one side, turn it,
and set it down on a structure.
I personally think they used derricks.
NARRATOR: Using these ancient tools,
the builders probably spent years constructing the Great Temple.
Some estimate that all of Petra must have taken at least 200 years to build.
On top of everything else,
ancient Nabatean architects faced one more natural obstacle around Petra.
A 1,200 kilometer fault line marks where two tectonic plates meet,
the Arabian plate and the Sinai subplate.
The seismic risk is very high along this fault line.
Several earthquakes have struck Petra through the years,
leading to the destruction of structures
not built into the surrounding cliffsides.
Except for one, Qasr al-Bint.
In Bedouin Arabic, the name means "The Palace of the Pharaoh's Daughter,"
but it was also thought to be the city's largest place of worship.
FALAHAT (in Arabic): The Temple of Qasr al-Bint
was one of the three temples
in the center of Petra.
Construction of this temple began in the early first century BC and finished
in the first century AD,
during the time of King Aretas IV Philopatris.
This temple was built for the purpose of honoring
and worshiping the god Dushara,
the most popular god of the Nabatean Arabs in Petra.
NARRATOR: This temple was no ordinary construction.
It was built to withstand nature itself.
The Temple of Qasr al-Bint is a perfect square.
So, in an earthquake,
pressure hits evenly across all four sides of the monument,
reducing the overall impact.
To further protect their place of worship,
the Nabatean builders also used another strategy,
traces of which are still visible on the temple walls.
These horizontal grooves are actually the remains of ancient wooden beams.
When building the temple's load-bearing walls,
the architects added cedar beams at various levels.
Connecting to each other,
the beams served as reinforcement throughout the structure.
Since wood is more flexible than stone,
the beams could help absorb part of the pressure of an earthquake.
FALAHAT (in Arabic): Seismic waves propagate from bottom to top,
but when they come into contact with wooden planks, they disperse horizontally.
If the seismic wave continues to grow,
then it hits the other wooden planks higher up.
They also disperse the energy and ultimately
minimize the impact on the upper part of the building.
This technique has helped the temple
to remain standing in spite of its size.
It's the only monument built this way
and the only one still standing
despite the multitude of earthquakes that have struck this region.
NARRATOR: These unusual techniques allowed Qasr al-Bint to remain standing
for 2,000 years in the heart of the ancient city.
Earthquakes weren't the only challenge Petra's builders faced.
To survive, the desert city also needed to carefully manage its water supply.
The average rainfall is about 15 centimeters a year here.
When the rain finally falls between December and March,
it can lead to devastating flash floods.
The city's architects had to capture any rainfall they could,
so they could supply the population with water throughout the year,
while also protecting themselves from flash flooding.
The walls of the Siq,
the narrow gorge marking the entrance to Petra,
hold clues to how the ancient builders controlled the flow of water.
QAIS TWEISSI: This carving channel came all the way from
the entrance of the Siq till the Treasury facade,
which is about 12,200 meter.
NARRATOR: The Siq is marked by channels in the cliffsides,
and more sophisticated systems.
Clay pipes actually built into the cliffs,
assembled in sections connected by waterproof coating.
Their diameter allowed for natural pressure within the pipes.
This meant the water could naturally flow toward the city center unobstructed,
and even go up gentle slopes.
Further north of the city,
another site reveals the complexity
of this ancient city's infrastructure.
These were once Petra's water purification reservoirs.
TWEISSI: If you look to the edge of the cliff,
you can see a curving channel,
which is mostly destroyed.
The idea of this channel is to collect water from the top of the cliff,
and then firstly feed that big basin here,
which we can call it as the collection basin,
and the main use for this basin is to let silt
settle down for a while, and in this case,
they can be sure the water is getting somehow filtered,
and out of dirt.
And after that, when they are sure that
some of the water is getting filtered and is good,
through a small valve in this wall between the two basins,
the water go to this next small basin,
and is kept for the next step,
which is going again through this dam here
and another small valve in the dam,
and then through more cisterns,
water channels and pipes
to feed the rest of many
water cisterns in this area.
NARRATOR: Passing through multiple basins,
the water would settle little by little,
losing its impurities.
The final reservoir held clean drinking water,
which would then be piped into the city's water system.
Years of archaeological excavations have found that Petra's water system
was tremendously complex.
The city was surrounded by dams and a network of reservoirs
for storage and purification, along with long diversion canals,
all helping to avoid flooding
while also storing the city's precious rainwater supply.
The city center contained dozens of kilometers of canals.
Water was routed along the cliffsides,
passed through the streets in aqueducts,
flowed over walls and fed into the city's many cisterns and reservoirs.
TWEISSI: If we connect actually all the pipes together,
we can reach something like 170 kilometers of pipes in one line.
So, this gives us an idea of
how much work done to protect the site, and the region.
PARADISE: Once they learned how to engineer that water for storage,
and built cisterns and storage facilities and reservoirs,
suddenly you just didn't have water that was available during seasons,
you had water available all year.
NARRATOR: Petra's mastery of water made it a genuine desert oasis
in just a few decades.
Next to the Great Temple in the city center,
the Nabateans even built a large, luxurious bathing complex
using thousands of liters of water.
The complex was fronted by a lush garden with numerous trees,
leading to a basin as large as an Olympic-size swimming pool.
In the middle, stood a richly decorated pavilion.
Thousands of years later, the site lies in ruins.
When archaeologists first began excavating here decades ago,
they never expected to find something so lavish.
FOURNET (in French): Before the excavations, none of this was visible.
These slopes appeared barren and undeveloped,
but once we excavated, we found remnants of what was here.
Excavations revealed an extremely complex system of pipes,
hydraulic surfaces, and cisterns that were refined architecturally.
Archaeologists quickly realized that they were dealing with
a highly complex system that included an open-air pool,
which had in the middle of it a large and extremely elegant pavilion.
And below the pool, there was a garden,
which was also very polished from an architectural standpoint.
The representation element was clearly present.
The entire system was supported by a series of cisterns and aqueducts
that brought water from all over the valley.
NARRATOR: But this wasn't the only luxurious use of water
in this 2,000-year-old desert city.
Further away, at the top of Jabal Khubthah,
was an even more sophisticated spot.
A gigantic thermal spa.
Its entrance was through a wide courtyard,
which opened onto a banquet room on one side,
and a frigidarium on the other.
The frigidarium held a pool of cold water,
the first stop for spa visitors.
The next room was the tepidarium, a warm-water pool.
It helped visitors adjust to the following hot rooms...
equipped with group basins large enough for two or three people.
[bell jingles]
The discovery of this thermal spa was a surprise to archaeologists.
It was unusual to find such a complex site on the plains
overhanging the city center.
FOURNET (in French): Petra is well-known and very popular.
Once you take an interest in the ruins,
you realize that a lot of them are partially visible but unidentified.
That's why the initial idea was to create a map of the area
showing all the walls of which the top is more or less still visible.
Then, based on that map, we wanted to interpret
what Jabal Khubthah looked like in the past.
Imagine our surprise when the map revealed
all the well-known characteristics of traditional thermal architecture.
The excavation further revealed that despite its location,
on top of a massive cliff, there was really a thermal spa right where we stand.
NARRATOR: In the section containing the hot baths,
excavations uncovered a complex heating system
inspired by the Romans called a hypocaust.
A hearth in a ventilated service room served as the main heat source.
Small openings connected it to the floors of the spa rooms,
funneling hot air and smoke underneath the hot bath
in an underground chamber constructed from stacked bricks,
allowing heat to freely circulate.
The walls also held a network of clay water pipes,
which were connected to outlets on the roof of the building.
Other excavations revealed the ruins of nearby buildings,
part of a complex that covered the entire plateau.
FOURNET (in French): This is the aqueduct that fed into the baths and which
was connected to an expansive rain water retention network.
It ran all across this valley and fed into the water tower of the spa.
And of the other side there was an interesting rock sanctuary
that one could access via a staircase that used to be right here.
NARRATOR: The baths of Jabal Khubthah
drew inspiration from Greco-Roman thermal culture.
But this small sanctuary indicates that thermal practice here
may not have been simply for leisure,
but was likely connected to ritual.
In this complex towering over the city,
the wealthiest of Petra's inhabitants relaxed in luxurious style,
while taking in the view of their capital.
The Nabateans overcame nature's obstacles,
from the unforgiving desert and sheer cliffsides
to tectonic instability.
In only 200 years, in an inhospitable landscape,
this ancient civilization built a luxurious and extraordinary city.
FOURNET (in French): What's fascinating about the
culture of the Nabateans is how,
in just a few centuries, they managed
to become incredibly wealthy.
They wanted the best of the world,
which meant they imported artisans, architects, materials,
and practices from the Greco-Roman world.
Since the Nabateans were able to get the cream of the crop and in record time,
in less than two centuries, they built a city that was truly exceptional,
combining the very best elements from Rome and Egypt
to create their own luxurious and exuberant mix of the two.
NARRATOR: In 106 AD,
the Roman Empire annexed the Nabatean kingdom.
Over time, the city's structures were modified, transformed,
or even destroyed by Roman engineers.
The city was slowly abandoned,
and its location lost to history.
It would only be rediscovered in the early 19th century by a Swiss explorer.
Ever since then, Petra has captivated its visitors.
PARADISE: It's easy for us to think that people in our past
were not as clever and knowledgeable as we are now.
But when we look at the engineering expertise of the Nabateans then,
I really think we're looking at a society, a community,
of amazing engineering skills.
They knew how to use the rock to their advantage,
for storage, for decoration;
they knew how to use a landscape
covered with a beautiful soil
that would've been ideal for agriculture,
and they knew that water was the key and the source to their livelihood.
GRAF: We don't have any parallel for the Nabateans
and their architecture elsewhere,
so it is fairly unique.
Their engineering skill, their artistic skill,
their architectural skill,
all of these are very impressive.
NARRATOR: Two thousand years later,
mysteries still remain at Petra.
Archaeologists, historians, and geologists
continue to study the city's incredible structures.
Petra endures as an unparalleled monument
to the architectural mastery of its ancient builders.