PETRA. - A city of Transjordan, characteristically built on sheer rocks, and therefore called Sela ("rock"), in Greek P. It was inhabited by the Edomites already in the early Iron Age, whose remains have come to light on the height of Umm el-Bijārah; according to Jerome of Candia (312) it was then without walls, but naturally defended. It was occupied by Amaziah, king of Judah (797-779 B.C.), and the prisoners were thrown down from the high peaks (II Par. 25, 12). It was reoccupied by the Edomites under Rezin, king of Syria. P. is mentioned in Is. 42, 11; Jer. 49, 16 and by Abd. 3, which mentions the high dwellings as eagles' nests.

Occupied by the Nabataeans under Cyrus, it became the capital of the Kingdom, acquiring great importance. From then on the building movement began, with the construction in the rock of great and ornate buildings, which did not cease even under the Roman conquest (A.D. 106). In the deserted city, divided in two by the Wādī Mūsā, very many buildings are still visible: temples, a nymphaeum, a theater, tombs, houses, etc., hewn from the rock by the natives, who tried to imitate Greco-Roman motifs. The decorations are for the most part confined to architectural elements. In P. one should also note the high places of worship on el-Ḥabis and on el-Ḥubzeh. In the Christian period some buildings were changed into churches, for example, the so-called tomb of the urns, which became a cathedral in 447 under Bishop Jason; others into hermits' dwellings, as at ed-Dejr. With the Arab occupation (7th century) the city became deserted, remaining so until now; so much so that the Crusaders, who built a castle there on el-Ḥabis, apparently did not know its ancient name.

Bibliography10 works

BIBL.: G. Arconti Visconti, Diario di viaggio in Arabia Petra (1863), Turin 1872; R. E. Brünnow - A. Von Domaszewski, Die Provincia Arabia, I, Strasbourg 1904; A. Musil, Arabia Petraea, II, Edom. Vienna 1907; G. Dalman, P. und seine Felsheiligtümer, Leipzig 1908; id., Neue P.-Forschungen, ibid. 1912; N. Glueck, in Annual of American Schools of oriental research, 15 (1934-35), p. 82; G. And - A. Horsfield, Sela-P., the rock of Edom and Nabatene, in Quart. of Depart. of antiquities in Palestine, 7 (1938), pp. 1-42 (with bibl. and topography); 8 (1939), pp. 87-115 (excavations and stratification); 9 (1942), pp. 105-204 (small objects); F.-M. Abel, Géographie de la Palestine, II, Paris 1938, pp. 407-408.

Bellarmino Bagatti

@incollection{ec9_petra, author = {Bagatti, Bellarmino}, title = {Petra}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IX}, pages = {1287--1288}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/petra} }

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