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00:02In the Jordanian desert, an incredible ancient treasure still stands.
00:08The monumental city of Petra.
00:14Built over 2,000 years ago by the ancient Nabataean civilization,
00:20Petra's construction is colossal, with monuments, tombs, and temples
00:26carved into the sides of cliffs.
00:32The nature of Petra as a rock-carved city is really unique.
00:36There are not other places with this many tombs and this kind of architecture.
00:45To sustain this ancient desert city, its engineers built a water supply system
00:51with channels and pipelines that transformed Petra into a desert oasis.
00:59Filled with lush gardens, a pool, and a thermal spa.
01:05You just didn't have water that was available during seasons, you had water available all year.
01:13Even today, the achievements of Petra's engineers are astounding.
01:18They made a region of harsh, arid mountains into a prosperous city of over 20,000 people and an ancient
01:27trading capital.
01:44Now, experts take us behind the scenes to finally see how this ancient culture carved cliffside monuments that still stand
01:54today.
01:56discover how this forbidding landscape became the amazing city of Petra.
02:18The ancient city of Petra stands a 200-kilometer journey south from Jordan's capital, Amman.
02:25Halfway between the Red Sea and the Dead Sea, Petra is strategically located in a valley at the end of
02:32a narrow canyon.
02:45It's an astounding site, with monuments carved into the rock face on all sides.
02:53Built over 2,000 years ago, the ancient people who constructed the city were known as the Nabataeans.
03:08But why did these nomadic merchants build their city in a remote desert canyon?
03:22Petra was the perfect crossroads. It was a nexus of commerce.
03:26So you have north-south trade that involved frankincense and myrrh and then turquoise and peridot and gemstones coming from
03:34the south.
03:35Then you have the east-west trade coming through, which is now Kuwait,
03:39that would have brought silk and Chinese goods in from the east.
03:43So there's no coincidence that Petra was the perfect location to build a city,
03:48and a city that would boom within hundreds of years to thousands of inhabitants.
03:54In addition to its location at the nexus of valuable trade routes, Petra also had other advantages.
04:02Its steep hillsides provided a natural defense against invaders.
04:08The city's builders constructed control towers at its highest points to secure the area.
04:16The entry point for the city passed through a narrow gorge formed by erosion, called the Seek.
04:33Petra stood at the junction of multiple dry stream valleys, called wadis, which the Nabataeans used to direct rain flow
04:40and spring water to the city.
04:46You're in a desert, water is scarce, and what do you find is a large basin where water drains from
04:53a couple of directions.
04:54So the original inhabitants of Petra understood that where water converges is probably the most important thing to look for
05:04for a desert city.
05:05It's not a coincidence. It's not an arbitrary location.
05:08It's the perfect location where you have water and then trade, commerce, a flat valley that would be ideal for
05:17a city center.
05:18Petra is the best location within one or two hundred miles easily, if not a thousand miles, to build a
05:25city.
05:27The Nabataeans built their hidden city in just 200 years.
05:36The entry point through the Seek led to a vast plain that became the city center, home to 20,000
05:44to 30,000 people in the first century A.D.
05:50Nearly 3,000 monuments and buildings decorated the city at its surrounding cliffsides.
05:58The six square kilometer city became the capital of the Nabataean kingdom.
06:06These master architects built the lavish kazneh, or treasury, near the entrance to the city.
06:21The structure is decorated with details that show the influence of Greek and Egyptian architecture.
06:28High columns are topped with ornate Corinthian capitals.
06:34And the entrance is flanked by statues of the Greek mythological figures Castor and Pollux.
06:43The second level features Atholos, a circular Greek structure, surrounded by sculptures of Egyptian and Greek deities, worn down by
06:532,000 years of erosion.
06:57At the top, a massive urn stands 3.5 meters high.
07:06Inside lies a vast hall, opening onto three large rooms.
07:12But unlike the exterior, the inside of the structure is plain, with the walls left completely bare.
07:33The function of the kazneh remains a puzzling question.
07:39And it has been speculated that it was a tomb for one of the Nabataean kings.
07:43Possibly, it was a tomb for the great Nabataean king, Aratus IV.
07:50But this is only guesswork.
07:52We really don't know who was buried there.
07:55And there are no inscriptions at any of the tombs to give us some idea of who this tomb represents.
08:06The kazneh was carved out of a sandstone cliff that stands 80 meters high.
08:17For workers to carve out this massive structure, Petra's architects had to rethink their usual building methods.
08:24A typical bottom-to-top plan would be impossible when carving from a cliff.
08:32If we start at the bottom, we don't know the exact point where we need to start to be at
08:38the bottom of the top.
08:39Because the falaises are not always verticales.
08:42They can be slightly flat.
08:44It's very difficult to calculate.
08:46And the problem is that we need to detail constantly on top of our head.
08:50With all the problems that it poses, that is to fall on the workers.
08:57So they carved the kazneh from top to bottom.
09:02But the structure's side soar nearly 40 meters high.
09:08How did the workers get to the top to even start carving?
09:14Scaffolding makes sense.
09:15But in the desert, wood was scarce.
09:24If we look at the pollen record in Petra, we notice that trees were not much more abundant than they
09:33are today.
09:33And the trees that did exist in the area are similar to trees we see today, juniper and oak.
09:39The climate hasn't changed enough to change the variety of trees.
09:45So trees did grow then, but they grew sparsely.
09:48They were not common at all.
09:50So the use of scaffolding would have been a very, very rare luxury for the Nabataeans to have.
09:58Without wood to build scaffolding, Petra's architects got creative.
10:03And their methods are still visible on the mountain today.
10:16In the future of the Nabataeans to do that,
10:20It is a very nice picture of life.
10:21The wonder before the Nabataeans to do that,
10:22when they realized that they needed to reach the geo to the mountain,
10:25So as soon as they began diving to the seaset,
10:26They began coming from the top to the top.
10:28They were able to build these trees
10:30And set them inεθΆ³ for the size of this project.
10:36and with them they used the tools they used to do it.
10:40There was a land that could go from the other side
10:45and then the operation of the mountain
10:48and they would go to the top of the mountain
10:50and start the construction of the farm.
10:53After climbing the first part of the staircase,
10:56visitors reach a huge cave,
10:58a shelter carved out by workers at the start of construction.
11:06We were here, in this section,
11:10which was the task of the workers' work in the farm.
11:16The workers would gather here
11:17and go from here to the bridge
11:19that they would have been sent to the other side
11:23and move from behind the mountain.
11:26Even the preparation for the monument was impressive.
11:30But it was all to set the stage
11:33for the construction to come.
11:37Experts say the ancient architects used certain methods
11:40to carve the cosne straight out of the rock.
11:45The first step was to carve a ledge in the cliffside.
11:48Then, the workers could use the ledge
11:51to access the face of the rock
11:52and began carving the gigantic urn at the top.
12:04Next, they dug two vertical trenches on either side.
12:08Then, the ledge was carved further
12:11and another section of the cosne began to take shape.
12:18A series of indentations likely served as ladders
12:21so workers could reach the different levels of the structure.
12:25They continued this process
12:27until they finally reached the bottom.
12:34There was no room for mistakes.
12:38Once they completed a level,
12:40they couldn't reach it again later.
12:43The smallest mistake would stay carved into the rock
12:46for thousands of years.
12:53The remnants of the vertical trenches
12:55and enclaves are still visible today.
12:59Reminders of this massive undertaking
13:01by Petra's ancient architects.
13:05Experts believe the builders finished the job
13:07in less than four years.
13:11Two kilometers from here,
13:13another one of the city's monuments
13:15was also carved entirely from the rock.
13:18It's called Ad Deir.
13:34It's not an easy place to reach.
13:37Through a narrow path
13:38and up over 800 stone steps,
13:42the colossal structure towers over the city below.
13:48The exterior of Ad Deir is less ornate
13:51and more abstract
13:52than the cosne's figurative decoration.
13:55But both structures
13:56feature imposing columns
13:58supporting two levels of pediments and a tholos.
14:03Ad Deir also features
14:05a 10-meter high urn
14:07at the top of its tholos.
14:11During the Christian period,
14:13it was developed into a monastery.
14:16But in the earlier period,
14:18its purpose seems
14:19to have been originally a tomb.
14:21Who was buried there
14:23and when is a matter of speculation again.
14:26But it is one of the most magnificent tombs
14:31at Petra, along with the cosne.
14:36At first,
14:37it seems Ad Deir was built
14:39the same way as the cosne,
14:40since both monuments were carved entirely from the rock.
14:48But the cliffs are less steep than the cosne.
14:51The sides of the rock around Ad Deir
14:53slope more gently toward the ground
14:55so workers could use different methods
14:58to carve this structure.
15:04Getting started was also relatively easier.
15:07Workers could climb the slope to the top,
15:09making the carving of the urn
15:11a much simpler task.
15:18Building the rest of the structure
15:20took two stages.
15:21The first was to create
15:23a giant set of steps
15:24across the face of the rock.
15:26Eliminating the excess rock
15:28so the vertical facade
15:29could take shape.
15:31Then, workers carved Ad Deir
15:34step-by-step from top to bottom.
15:44To the untrained eye,
15:46the sculpture work on Ad Deir
15:48may seem almost crude.
15:50The columns and their capitals
15:51are simple and abstract.
15:53And the pediments are sparely decorated.
15:56But the structure's simplicity
15:58belies a superior level of mastery.
16:02Contrairement Γ ce que beaucoup
16:03de personnes croient,
16:05il est plus facile
16:07de rΓ©aliser un chapiteau
16:08par exemple
16:09avec des feuilles d'account
16:10d'un chapiteau richement ornΓ©
16:12parce qu'on peut toujours
16:13se dΓ©brouiller
16:14si on a commis
16:16une petite erreur
16:16dans le tracΓ©
16:17de modifier légèrement
16:19la forme de la feuille
16:20de manière
16:21Γ cacher son erreur
16:22et personne ne le verra.
16:24En revanche,
16:25avec des lignes pures
16:26la moindre erreur
16:28est visible
16:30donc il faut Γͺtre
16:31beaucoup plus soigneux
16:33et attentif
16:34et rigoureux
16:35donc
16:35on n'a pas le droit
16:38Γ l'erreur.
16:39Ad Deir's smooth columns
16:41and refined lines
16:42are the result
16:43of incredible skill.
16:45Even more impressive,
16:47they were all carved
16:48out of the mountain
16:49in one piece.
16:52When a structure
16:54is made of stone blocks
16:55assembled together
16:56carvers can choose them
16:58individually
16:58before beginning their work
17:00not possible here.
17:05The sculptors worked up
17:07against the rocky wall
17:08digging centimeter
17:09by centimeter
17:10every step
17:11had to be perfect.
17:17Si l'on casse
17:20par erreur
17:20ou parce qu'il y a
17:21un petit problème
17:22dans la roche
17:23qu'on casse
17:24un Γ©lΓ©ment
17:25de corniche
17:26de chapiteaux
17:26et cetera
17:27et bien
17:28Γ ce moment-lΓ
17:30on ne peut pas
17:31remplacer le bloc
17:31la moindre erreur
17:33et bien
17:34c'est fatal
17:35on ne peut pas
17:36la rΓ©parer.
17:53de chapiteaux
17:55de chapiteaux
17:57de chapiteaux
17:58de chapiteaux
17:59was sculpted
18:00sur exit
18:02of sandstone
18:04in all
18:05Π²Π½Π΅Ργͺ colors
18:16the nature of Petra as a rock carved city is really unique there are not other places with
18:23this many tombs and this kind of architecture the number of these rock carved areas is
18:32unparalleled anywhere in the Mediterranean world Petra is is a unique exceptional in this regard
18:47in addition to the rock carved monuments the city also housed many more stone structures built using
18:54traditional construction methods
19:02the sandstone used to build the freestanding structures came from nearby construction sites
19:09when carving their cliffside monuments workers shaped and reused the large amounts of stone removed from
19:16the mountains many of the more traditional buildings have been destroyed are buried in
19:25the sand after 2,000 years the number of buildings Petra once contained remains unknown but experts say
19:38there were more than just the leftover stone extracted from cliffside constructions the
19:44builders also drew from sources outside Petra archaeological excavations have found 14 stone
19:55quarries around the city or workers extracted thousands of cubic meters of multicolored sandstone
20:04southeast of the city at the summit of Jebel al-Madbah lies one of the biggest stone quarries
20:18the extraction of huge stone blocks weighing hundreds of kilos would have taken years
20:28the workers only tools were a pick a mallet and an iron wedge
20:40two stone obelisks each almost seven meters high are all that remain to show the rocks original height
20:55these columns left behind are signs and witness about the volume of the rock that were extracted from this particular
21:07aquaria which counts for at least tens of thousands of cubic meters
21:20petra's most impressive stone quarry is at wadi asiak here workers dug out the floor to extract almost 30 meters
21:30of rock
21:32but at the bottom they discovered sandstone of much higher quality
21:39so they dug further directly into the bottom of the cliff carving out an opening over eight meters long
21:46carving out an opening over eight meters long
21:50this kind of sand is quite hard so it is more resistance than the others it is characterized by its
21:59yellowish brown color so um
22:02there's a huge amount of rocks were excavated from this quarry it is
22:09estimated that the quantities of the rock which is extracted from this quarry
22:15alone more than 31,000 meter cube even after removing the blocks of sandstone
22:22from the mountain the workers still had to move them to the city how they did
22:27that remains a mystery
22:34it is rather rare to find the traces left by possible transports of stone
22:41we must be aware that the quarry has been exposed here for two thousand years
22:48and of course this stone has suffered quite significant erosions
22:52that hasn't stopped archaeologists from offering theories based on local
23:11topography the quarries are all found above the valley they're not at the
23:19lower portion of the valley so the quarries where the rock was removed to use
23:25for construction in Petra are all found either at the same level or above so
23:30simple roller tools could have been used to haul the rock down the workers probably
23:38used simple wooden rollers to move the stone
23:43logs would have been placed on top of two larger parallel tree trunks the stone
23:49blocks could then be rolled down the slope to the city
23:56one of the most impressive monuments built using sandstone blocks mined from the
24:01quarries is the great temple
24:09the enormous building stretches to 7,000 square meters despite its name it was
24:16probably not used as a temple but as a central administrative building or as the
24:22public section of the royal palace
24:26the massive entrance porch leads to a series of rooms and hallways surrounded by columns was
24:34this a courtroom or an assembly area its intended purpose has been lost to time now only ruins
24:45remains of this once imposing building but its massive stone blocks raise another
24:51archaeological mystery how did the builders raised these stones 35 meters into the air without
24:59scaffolding Petra's architects left no written record but the methods used by the Romans and other
25:06civilizations provide a few theories
25:11in existent insert a number of the machine
25:14which is on the realese e-embois
25:15which permit to do the veil and pierre
25:17and la majoritΓ© des machines who sont utilizes
25:19this one day she ever said there's son depotre qui sont assemblΓ©s
25:23which tiennent grassadee au banc
25:26and avec une poulie
25:27on left la pierre
25:29and on la
25:36another type of lifting device is called a derrick made up of a single large wooden beam
25:41it is placed in a hole in the ground to anchor it on the other end pulleys are connected to
25:48two
25:48cords attached to the ground and a third cord tied around the rock using a pendulum-like movement the
25:56rock can be lifted and positioned anywhere in the construction site emma de charles are certainly
26:05maliky pratica que de chavre la chavre ne se dΓ©placent que dans un sens elle ne tourne pas alors que
26:11le
26:11main de charge on peut prendre un bloc d'un cΓ΄tΓ© tournΓ© et le dΓ©poser sur le monument donc personnellement
26:17je passe plutΓ΄t on a de charge using these ancient tools the builders probably spent years constructing
26:26the great temple some estimate that all of petra must have taken at least 200 years to build
26:44on top of everything else ancient nabatean architects faced one more natural obstacle around petra
26:52a 1200 kilometer fault line marks where two tectonic plates meet the arabian plate and the sinai subplate
27:02the seismic risk is very high along this fault line
27:09several earthquakes have struck petra through the years leading to the destruction of structures not
27:15built into the surrounding cliff sides except for one khazar al-bent
27:31in bedouin arabic the name means the palace of the pharaoh's daughter
27:36but it was also thought to be the city's largest place of worship
27:57This building was created in the 2nd century of the first century before the birth.
28:04It was created for the construction of the first century and ended up until the 1st century of the first
28:10century in the fourth of the King of the King.
28:13This building was created for the building to ensure the great god of the Shara in the first time of
28:24the Arabian in the Batra.
28:27This temple was no ordinary construction. It was built to withstand nature itself.
28:34The temple of Khazar al-Bent is a perfect square.
28:38So in an earthquake, pressure hits evenly across all four sides of the monument, reducing the overall impact.
28:47To further protect their place of worship, the Nabataean builders also used another strategy,
28:53traces of which are still visible on the temple walls.
28:57These horizontal grooves are actually the remains of ancient wooden beams.
29:07When building the temple's load-bearing walls, the architects added cedar beams at various levels.
29:14Connecting to each other, the beams served as reinforcement throughout the structure.
29:20Since wood is more flexible than stone, the beams could help absorb part of the pressure of an earthquake.
29:30The trees if the rock Γberth, the fields is a part of the land.
29:32The earth comes from the front and stays very too high.
29:34When it falls in the lower, the flames are so IB.
29:36So that when it appears to be loose, there's also a wood that is still there.
29:41The wood to terribly.
29:53and, regardless of the size of the building,
29:56it is the only building that used this technique
29:58and the only building that is still stable,
30:01regardless of the area of the area.
30:08These unusual techniques allowed Khazar al-Bint
30:11to remain standing for 2,000 years
30:14in the heart of the ancient city.
30:21Earthquakes weren't the only challenge Petra's builders faced.
30:25To survive, the desert city also needed
30:28to carefully manage its water supply.
30:32The average rainfall is about 15 centimeters a year here.
30:38When the rain finally falls between December and March,
30:42it can lead to devastating flash floods.
30:47The city's architects had to capture any rainfall they could
30:51so they could supply the population with water throughout the year,
30:55while also protecting themselves from flash flooding.
31:04The walls of the Sikh,
31:05the narrow gorge marking the entrance to Petra,
31:08hold clues to how the ancient builders controlled the flow of water.
31:21This carving channel came all the way from the entrance of the Sikh
31:25till the treachery facade, which is about 1,200 meters.
31:31The Sikh is marked by channels in the cliffsides,
31:35and more sophisticated systems.
31:39Clay pipes actually built into the cliffs,
31:43assembled in sections connected by waterproof coating.
31:50Their diameter allowed for natural pressure within the pipes.
31:54This meant the water could naturally flow toward the city center unobstructed,
31:59and even go up gentle slopes.
32:05Further north of the city,
32:07another site reveals the complexity of this ancient city's infrastructure.
32:12These were once Petra's water purification reservoirs.
32:17If you look to the edge of the cliff,
32:20you can see a carving channel which is mostly destroyed.
32:24The idea of this channel is to collect water from the top of the cliff,
32:29and then firstly feed that big basin here,
32:33which we can call it as a collection basin.
32:38And the main using for this basin is to let silt settle down for a while.
32:46And in this case,
32:47they can be sure the water is getting somehow filtered and out of dirt.
32:53And after that,
32:54when they sure that some of the water getting filtered and it's good,
32:58through a small valve in this wall between the two basin,
33:02the water go to this next small basin,
33:06and kept for the next step,
33:09which is going again through this dam here,
33:13and another small valve in the dam,
33:15and then through more cisterns, water channels and pipes
33:20to feed the rest of many water cisterns in this area.
33:30Passing through multiple basins,
33:32the water would settle little by little, losing its impurities.
33:36The final reservoir held clean drinking water,
33:40which would then be piped into the city's water system.
33:46Years of archaeological excavations have found that Petra's water system
33:50was tremendously complex.
33:56The city was surrounded by dams and a network of reservoirs for storage and purification,
34:02along with long diversion canals,
34:05all helping to avoid flooding,
34:07while also storing the city's precious rainwater supply.
34:13The city center contained dozens of kilometers of canals.
34:18water was routed along the cliff sides,
34:20passed through the streets and aqueducts,
34:23flowed over walls,
34:24and fed into the city's many cisterns and reservoirs.
34:30If we connect actually all the pipes together,
34:33we can reach something like 170 kilometers of pipes in one line.
34:38So this is give us an idea of how much work done to protect the site and the region.
34:46Once they learned how to engineer that water for storage
34:50and built cisterns and storage facilities and reservoirs,
34:54suddenly you just didn't have water that was available during seasons,
34:58you had water available all year.
35:06Petra's mastery of water made it a genuine desert oasis in just a few decades.
35:12Next to the great temple in the city center,
35:15the Nabataeans even built a large luxurious bathing complex
35:18using thousands of liters of water.
35:27The complex was fronted by a lush garden with numerous trees,
35:32leading to a basin as large as an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
35:36In the middle stood a richly decorated pavilion.
35:47Thousands of years later, the site lies in ruins.
35:53When archaeologists first began excavating here decades ago,
35:57they never expected to find something so lavish.
36:09We saw that before the fouilles, there was nothing visible.
36:11We saw that in the face, in particular, there are completely nus.
36:14But as we fouled, the vestiges sort.
36:15And that's what happened in this sector,
36:17where the fouilles revealed an extremely complex system
36:20of canalization, of hydraulics, of citernes,
36:23in an extremely refined architecture.
36:25And quickly, the archaeologists realized that they had a very monumental complex complex,
36:31and in the center of this piscine, a pavilion, extremely refined,
36:35very monumental, too.
36:37And in the middle of this piscine, a garden with very refined architecture elements,
36:41very refined architecture, really extremely fine.
36:43And so, an architecture of representation,
36:45and the whole, completely monumental,
36:48was fueled by a series of citernes and adducts
36:50that arrived in the entire valley.
36:55But this wasn't the only luxurious use of water
36:58in this 2,000-year-old desert city.
37:01Further away, at the top of Jebel Kupta,
37:04was an even more sophisticated spot,
37:07a gigantic thermal spa.
37:20Its entrance was through a wide courtyard,
37:23which opened onto a banquet room on one side,
37:26and a frigidarium on the other.
37:29The frigidarium held a pool of cold water,
37:32the first stop for spa visitors.
37:36The next room was the tepidarium,
37:38a warm water pool.
37:40It helped visitors adjust to the following hot rooms,
37:45equipped with group basins large enough for two or three people.
37:54The discovery of this thermal spa was a surprise to archaeologists.
38:00It was unusual to find such a complex site on the plains
38:03overhanging the city center.
38:09Petra is a very famous site, very visited,
38:12but we realize, as soon as we are interested in the question,
38:15that a lot of vestiges are in part visible, but unknown.
38:18And so, the idea of the start was to make a general cartography of the sector,
38:23to place on a plan all the walls
38:24that we can see more or less appear at the summit,
38:27and, on the basis of this plan,
38:28to try an interpretation of the vestiges of Djebel Khuptad.
38:33And our surprise was to see on the plan
38:35a very characteristic of the thermal architecture
38:39and, in fact, the pool confirmed that we had to do
38:42despite the disposition of a plateau,
38:44or a falaises,
38:46that we had to do a thermal building.
38:49In the section containing the hot baths,
38:52excavations uncovered a complex heating system
38:54inspired by the Romans called a hypocaust.
38:58A hearth in a ventilated service room
39:01served as the main heat source.
39:04Small openings connected it to the floors of the spa rooms,
39:09funneling hot air and smoke underneath the hot bath
39:12in an underground chamber constructed from stacked bricks,
39:17allowing heat to freely circulate.
39:21The walls also held a network of clay water pipes,
39:25which were connected to outlets on the roof of the building.
39:35Other excavations revealed the ruins of nearby buildings,
39:38part of a complex that covered the entire plateau.
39:47Ici, on a dΓ©jΓ Lac Duc,
39:50Lac Duc qui alimentait les bains,
39:51qui est associΓ© Γ tout un rΓ©seau de captation des eaux de ruissellement.
39:55Il y a un arc qui franchissait ici cette vallΓ©e
39:57pour alimenter le chΓ’teau d'eau des bains.
40:00Et ici, de l'autre cΓ΄tΓ©,
40:02un ensemble tout Γ fait intΓ©ressant
40:03qui est un petit sanctuaire rupestre
40:04et auquel on accΓ©dait par un escalier qui Γ©tait ici.
40:09The baths of Jebel Kupta drew inspiration
40:12from Greco-Roman thermal culture.
40:19But this small sanctuary indicates
40:21that thermal practice here
40:22may not have been simply for leisure,
40:24but was likely connected to ritual.
40:35In this complex towering over the city,
40:38the wealthiest of Petra's inhabitants
40:40relaxed in luxurious style
40:42while taking in the view of their capital.
40:55The Nabataeans overcame nature's obstacles,
40:59from the unforgiving desert and sheer cliff sides
41:02to tectonic instability.
41:06In only 200 years,
41:09in an inhospitable landscape,
41:12this ancient civilization
41:13built a luxurious and extraordinary city.
41:25What is fascinating
41:26in the study of the culture
41:27and the Nabataeans
41:28is to see
41:28how, in a few centuries,
41:30these populations
41:31would all of a sudden
41:32earn a lot of money
41:33and want to get
41:34what is the best in the ancient world.
41:36And therefore,
41:36they would import
41:37the artisans,
41:38the architects,
41:39the materials,
41:40of the Greco-Roman world.
41:42This way
41:43that the Nabataeans
41:43will all of a sudden
41:44get rid of everything
41:45that is better
41:47is that,
41:47in less than two centuries,
41:49they will create
41:49a city
41:50completely exceptional
41:51by taking things
41:54from Rome,
41:55from Egypt
41:55and making it
41:57extremely luxurious,
41:58completely exuberant,
41:59which makes
41:59this wonder
42:01that will happen.
42:04In 106 AD,
42:06the Roman Empire
42:07annexed
42:08the Nabataean Kingdom.
42:10Over time,
42:12the city's structures
42:12were modified,
42:14transformed
42:14or even destroyed
42:16by Roman engineers.
42:19The city
42:20was slowly abandoned
42:21and its location
42:22lost to history.
42:24It would only
42:25be rediscovered
42:26in the early 19th century
42:28by a Swiss explorer.
42:30Ever since then,
42:32Petra has captivated
42:34its visitors.
42:36It's easy for us
42:38to think that people
42:39in our past
42:40were not as clever
42:41and knowledgeable
42:43as we are now.
42:44But when we look
42:45at the engineering
42:46expertise of the Nabataeans
42:48then,
42:48I really think
42:49we're looking at
42:50a society,
42:51a community
42:52of amazing engineering skills.
42:56They knew how
42:56to use the rock
42:57to their advantage
42:58for storage,
43:00for decoration.
43:01they knew how
43:02to use a landscape
43:03covered with
43:05a beautiful soil
43:06that would have been
43:07ideal for agriculture.
43:08And they knew
43:09that water
43:10was the key
43:11and the source
43:12to their livelihood.
43:15We don't have any parallel
43:18for the Nabataeans
43:19and their architecture
43:21elsewhere,
43:22so it is fairly unique.
43:24Their engineering skill,
43:26their artistic skill,
43:28their architectural skill,
43:30all of these
43:31are very impressive.
43:35Two thousand years later,
43:37mysteries still remain
43:39at Petra.
43:41Archeologists,
43:42historians,
43:43and geologists
43:44continue to study
43:45the city's
43:46incredible structures.
43:51Petra endures
43:52as an unparalleled monument
43:54to the architectural mastery
43:56of its ancient builders.
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