Petra

Sister cities

• Hegra
• Plovdiv
• Leskovac

History

By 7000 BC, some of the earliest recorded farmers had settled in Beidha, a Pre-Pottery Neolithic settlement just north of Petra. Petra is listed in Egyptian campaign accounts and the Amarna letters as Pel, Sela, or Seir. The Iron Age lasted between 1200 and 600 BC; in that time, the Petra area was occupied by the Edomites. The configuration of mountains in Petra allowed for a reservoir of water for the Edomites. This made Petra a stopping point for merchants, making it an outstanding area for trade. Some wares that were traded included wines, olive oil, and wood. Initially, the Edomites were accompanied by Nomads who eventually left, but the Edomites stayed and made their mark on Petra before the emergence of the Nabataens. It is said that 10,000 men were thrown off the mountain Umm el-Biyara, but this story has been debated by scholars. The Edomite site excavated at the top of the Umm el-Biyara mountain at Petra was established no earlier than the seventh century BC (Iron II). The Nabataeans were one among several nomadic Bedouin tribes that roamed the Arabian Desert and moved with their herds to wherever they could find pasture and water. Although the Nabataeans were initially embedded in Aramaic culture, theories about them having Aramean roots are rejected by many modern scholars. Instead, archaeological, religious and linguistic evidence confirm that they are a northern Arabian tribe. Current evidence suggests that the Nabataean name for Petra was Raqēmō, variously spelled in inscriptions as rqmw or rqm. The Onomasticon of Eusebius also identified Rekem as Petra. Arabic raqama means "to mark, to decorate", so Rekeme could be a Nabataean word referring to the famous carved rock façades. In 1964, workmen clearing rubble away from the cliff at the entrance to…

Most-observed species

• House Sparrow

  Passer domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  420
• Tristram's Starling

  Onychognathus tristramii (P.L.Sclater, 1858) · Aves
  360
• Laughing Dove

  Spilopelia senegalensis (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  331
• Pale Crag Martin

  Ptyonoprogne obsoleta (Cabanis, 1850) · Aves
  325
• Mourning Wheatear

  Oenanthe lugens (Lichtenstein, 1823) · Aves
  280
• White-spectacled Bulbul

  Pycnonotus xanthopygos (Hemprich & Ehrenberg, 1833) · Aves
  279
• Rock Pigeon

  Columba livia J.F.Gmelin, 1789 · Aves
  263
• Blackstart

  Oenanthe melanura (Temminck, 1824) · Aves
  227

Most recent

• M 4.1 — 2026-01-15
  14 km S of Arad, Israel
• M 4.1 — 2021-06-15
  40 km W of A? ?ayyibah, Jordan
• M 3.9 — 2020-12-15
  1 km NNE of Eilat, Israel
• M 4.1 — 2014-05-24
  24 km NW of W?d? M?sá, Jordan
• M 4.5 — 2007-02-09
  8 km N of Safi, Jordan
• M 4 — 2007-02-09
  3 km WNW of Al Khinz?rah, Jordan