Petra, Jordan

In 1971, Sue and I went on an archaelogical bus tour from Beirut, through Syria to Jordan.

Our main destination was Petra, the "rose-red city half as old as time," that was the capital of the Nabataean kingdom from perhaps 400 BC until the kingdom was annexed by the Romans in 106 AD.

On our way to Petra we visited the Roman city of Jerash.

The Nymphaeum at Jerash, Jordan

A highly unusual feature of Jerash is the forum, which is the only circular one in the Roman world.

Jerash Forum

We had tried to reach Petra once before but our journey had been blocked by fighting between Palestinian refugees and the Jordanian army in and around Amman. This time we were luckier.

Arriving at Petra, we rode on horseback from the visitor center to the ruins. Walking would have been a chore, because it was a very hot day: 50C/122F!

A Nabataean tomb or temple at Petra

The only way into the ruined city is through the Siq, a narrow canyon that cuts through the red sandstone cliffs.

The first building you see as you emerge from the Siq is the Treasury, a Nabataean tomb now made world-famous by its appearance in the third Indiana Jones movie.

The valley beyond is full of Roman buildings and of Nabataean tombs carved into the cliffs.

In places, the stone of the cliff walls is unbelievably beautiful in color and texture.

Some of the tombs are small and crude, while others are much larger and more elaborately carved.

One of the most famous is the Obelisk Tomb, shown below.

Notes:

The Nabataean city of Petra owed its prosperity to its location astride the main caravan routes from China, India and southern Arabia to Greece, Egypt and Italy.

The city was unknown to Europeans until 1812, when it was first seen by the great Swiss explorer Burckhardt.

Leptis Magna: The Severan Period

Libya has many fascinating ancient sites but one stands out above the rest. Situated on the Mediterranean coast 75 miles east of Tripoli are the immense ruins of Leptis Magna, the best preserved Roman city in the world.

Leptis Magna in the spring

Founded by the Phoenicians and later controlled by Carthage, the city became a major trading centre under the Roman Republic and it was incorporated into the Roman empire by Tiberius in 23 BC.

One of the city's monumental streets

Leptis reached the peak of its prosperity during the reign of Septimius Severus (193-211 AD), who was born in the city. It declined in importance after Severus' reign but enjoyed a return to its former glory under the emperors Diocletian (284-305 AD) and Constantine (306-337 AD).

Leptis was occupied by the Vandals in 455 AD and then overrun by the Berbers in 523. The city was briefly incorporated into the Roman Byzantine empire in 533 AD before being occupied by the Arabs. After this, the site was abandoned and was gradually covered by sand.

Of all the ruins that cover the site, none compare in sheer size with those built by the Emperor Severus and his son Caracalla.

The Severan Forum

This forum is the most impressive structure on the whole site. It is enclosed by a massive wall into which are set monumental doorways.

The Severan Forum

Part of the forum wall

One of the forum's great doorways

Looking out through one of the doorways

A section of the forum's interior

The remains of an arched colonnade in the forum

The Basilica

At one end of the Severan forum is an enormous basilica, 525 feet long and 225 feet wide. The basilica, which had three aisles, had an apse at each end. (The basilica was the one of the main government buildings in a Roman city and was where legal tribunals took place.)

The curved exterior of one of the apses

Inside the basilica

Inside the basilica

Detail of a column in the basilica

Completed under Caracalla in 216 AD, the basilica was converted into a church during the sixth century recovery of the site by the Byzantines.

Pulpit in the Sixth Century AD church

The Hunting Baths

Among the most complete buildings at Leptis are the Hunting Baths, built in about 200 AD.

The exterior of the Hunting Baths

The bathhouse gets its name from the paintings of hunting scenes which grace its interior walls.

Hunting and fishing scenes inside the bathhouse

You can find more blogs about Leptis Magna immediately below this one.

Leptis Magna: The Hadrianic Baths

While the most impressive ruins at Leptis date to the Severan period, the site also has some very interesting remains from earlier periods. Perhaps foremost among these are the Hadrianic Baths.



The Emperor Hadrian


Hadrian was emperor of Rome from 117 to 138 AD, and he is best known for his work in establishing secure frontiers for the empire, including the defensive wall which he ordered built across northern Britain.


He really was an extraordinary man. He wrote poetry in both Latin and Greek, and was said to have been able to read, write and dictate simultaneously. During his time as emperor, he did two tours of the Roman provinces, travelling on foot and carrying the normal equipment of a Roman legionary. His private life was less exemplary and he was widely ridiculed for his affaire with a young boy called Antinous.




The Hadrianic Baths at Leptis


The bathhouse was built on a grand scale and it would have been one of the main social centres of the city, visited daily for several hours by all of the most prominent citizens.


Like Roman bathhouses elsewhere, the one at Leptis contained a series of rooms and baths at different temperatures, as well as changing rooms and restrooms.

The main entrance

The natatio or swimming pool

The remains of the underfloor hypocaust system that heated some of the rooms

The tepidarium or warm bath

A room with a statue of Hadrian's beloved Antinous

The floors of the rooms were clad in marble

The marble-clad latrines

Leptis Magna: The Theatre and the Palaestrum

The Theatre

Leptis Magna contains an excellent example of an early Roman theatre. Built in 1-2 AD and improved under Caracalla, the theatre is one of the largest in the world, holding up to 5,000 spectators.

The exterior

A general view of the theatre's interior


The stage

The theatre originally contained scores of statues, but only a handful remain today.

The Palaestrum

During our time in Libya, military restrictions meant that we did not have access to the palaestrum (sports ground) area at Leptis. The best we could manage was to view the area from other points at the site.

Leptis Magna: The Old Forum

The Severan forum was the largest and most impressive structure at Leptis. However, I always preferred visiting the old forum. Built during the First Century AD, it contained the remains of many features which cast light on the daily life of the city's inhabitants.

A kiosk in the old forum

A close-up of the kiosk

Stone supports decorated with dolphins supported market stall counters

The carving of a ship advertised imported goods at one stall

Standard volume measures aimed to ensure fair trading

Standard linear measures

The sides of this well show grooves worn by ropes holding buckets

Exploring the Desert

During our time together in Libya, Sue and I and our best friend Mustafa Gibril used to have an informal agreement about how to spend Fridays. (Weekends in Muslim countries are normally Friday and Saturday.) We would spend one Friday at the beach, the next inland looking for ruins, the next at the beach, and so on.

As I was in Libya for four years, this meant we spent a lot of days exploring ruins, most of which were from the Roman period.

Some of the ruins were well-known and easy to find, like these Roman remains at Ghadames.

Others were well-documented in archaeology books but extremely difficult to locate. As foreigners, we were not allowed to have detailed maps of Libya. So we spent many Fridays looking for the Mselleten Needles, two Roman obelisk tombs far from any modern settlements and roads.

Although the obelisks have been damaged by earthquakes over the years, they were worth the effort that it took to find them.




Many of the ruins that we found were Roman farms, often in a remarkable state of preservation, like this one.



Other ruins were much smaller and less easy to identify, like this example.



Sadly, any unprotected ruins near modern settlements tend to be robbed of their stones, which are taken away for use in new building projects. This was the case with a sunken Roman water cistern near Homs. The first time we saw it, the cistern was in reasonable condition, as these photos show.

When we returned a couple of years later, almost all of the stones had disappeared.

Note:

Most of our exploring was done in a Volkswagen Beetle, which proved to be capable of going over extremely rough ground.

However, longer and more ambitious journeys became possible when we bought a Nissan Patrol and had it fitted with extra sets of springs.

Our Nissan (foreground) near Sebha