Petra Timeline

Petra remained unknown to the western world until 1812, when Swiss traveller Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, travelling under the name Sheikh Ibrahim, rediscovered it. He was the first European to describe the ruins.

Image source: Johann Ludwig Burckhardt

Léon de Laborde and Louis-Maurice-Adolphe Linant de Bellefonds made the first accurate drawings of Petra in 1828, bringing detailed visual records of the ancient city to Europe.

The Scottish painter David Roberts visited Petra in 1839 and returned to Britain with sketches and stories of his encounter with local tribes, published in The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, and Nubia.

Image source: David Roberts (painter)

In 1845, British poet John William Burgon won Oxford University's Newdigate Prize for his poem 'Petra', containing the famous description 'a rose-red city half as old as time'.

Image source: John Burgon

Frederic Edwin Church, the leading American landscape painter of the 19th century, visited Petra in 1868, and the resulting painting El Khasné, Petra is among his most important and well-documented works.

Image source: Frederic Edwin Church

Missionary Archibald Forder published photographs of Petra in the December 1909 issue of National Geographic, bringing images of the lost city to a wide audience.

In 1958, Haim Hefer wrote the lyrics for a ballad called HaSela haAdom ('The Red Rock') about a trip to Petra that ended in death.

Image source: Haim Hefer

In 1977, the Lebanese Rahbani brothers wrote the musical Petra as a response to the Lebanese Civil War.

Image source: Rahbani brothers

In 1979, Marguerite van Geldermalsen from New Zealand married Mohammed Abdullah, a Bedouin in Petra, and lived among the local community.

The playwright John Yarbrough's tragicomedy, Petra, debuted at the Manhattan Repertory Theatre in 2014 and was followed by award-winning performances at the Hudson Guild in New York in 2015. It was selected for the Best American Short Plays 2014-2015 anthology.

Image source: For Heaven's Sake (play)

An Englishwoman, Joan Ward, wrote Living with Arabs: Nine Years with the Petra Bedouin documenting her experiences while living in Umm Sayhoun with the Petra Bedouin, covering the period 2004–2013.

Petra was the focus of an American PBS Nova special, 'Petra: Lost City of Stone', which premiered in the US and Europe in February 2015.

Image source: Nova (American TV program)

A fictionalized version of Petra appears as a playable arena in the video game Overwatch, having been added in a 2018 update.

Image source: Overwatch (video game)

Ever since Burckhardt's rediscovery in 1812, the cultural heritage site attracted travellers, pilgrims, painters and savants interested in Nabataean history, but it was not until the late 19th century that the ruins were systematically approached by archaeological researchers.

In 1929, a four-person team consisting of British archaeologists Agnes Conway and George Horsfield, Palestinian physician and folklore expert Tawfiq Canaan, and Danish scholar Ditlef Nielsen excavated and surveyed Petra.

In 1958, restoration work was carried out on the third pillar of the Treasury building (Al-Khazneh), one of Petra's most iconic monuments.

In 1964, workmen clearing rubble away from the cliff at the entrance to the gorge found several funerary inscriptions in Nabatean script.

In an attempt to reduce the problems facing the site, the Petra National Trust (PNT) was established in 1989 to protect and preserve Petra's heritage.

From 1992 to 2002, the Conservation and Restoration Center in Petra (CARCIP), a German GTZ Project, worked on conserving and restoring the ancient site.

From 1993 to 2000, excavation, conservation and restoration of the Great Temple was carried out, funded by Brown University, USA.

Image source: Great Temple (Petra)

Numerous scrolls in Greek dating to the Byzantine period were discovered in an excavated church near the Temple of the Winged Lions in Petra in December 1993.

From 1996 onwards, restoration of the Siq and rehabilitation of the Siq floor was undertaken by the Petra National Trust, funded by the Jordanian-Swiss counterpart Fund, the Swiss Agency for Development and the World Monuments Fund.

Image source: Siq

From 2006 to 2010, preservation and consolidation of the Wall Paintings in Siq al Barid was carried out by the Petra National Trust in cooperation with the Department of Antiquities of Jordan and the Courtauld Institute of Art (London).

Image source: Little Petra

The presentation Tourism and Archaeological Heritage Management at Petra: Driver to Development or Destruction? (2012) was the first in a series addressing the deteriorating buildings, cities, sites, and regions caused by tourism pressures.

In 2016, archaeologists using satellite imagery and drones discovered a very large, previously unknown monumental structure whose beginnings were tentatively dated to about 150 BC, the time when the Nabataeans initiated their public building programme.

From 2016 to 2019, the Characterisation and Conservation of Paintings on Walls and Sculpture from Nabataean Petra, known as The Petra Painting Conservation Project (PPCP), was funded by the German Research Foundation.

The Bedul (Petra Bedouin) were forcibly resettled from their cave dwellings in Petra to Umm Sayhoun/Um Seihun by the Jordanian government in 1985, prior to the UNESCO designation process.

On December 6, 1985, Petra was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, recognizing its outstanding universal value as an ancient Nabataean city.

The Bedoul belong to one of the Bedouin tribes whose cultural heritage and traditional skills were proclaimed by UNESCO on the Intangible Cultural Heritage List in 2005 and inscribed in 2008.

In a popular poll in 2007, Petra was named one of the New 7 Wonders of the World, receiving widespread media coverage through the Internet and cellphone campaign that substantially increased tourism.

Image source: New 7 Wonders of the World

In August 2007, the Petra Archaeological Park (PAP) became an autonomous legal entity over the management of the site.

In 2011, following an 11-month project planning phase, the Petra Development and Tourism Region Authority, in association with DesignWorkshop and JCP s.r.l, published a Strategic Master Plan guiding planned development of the Petra Region.

PETA released a video in 2018 highlighting the abuse of working animals in Petra. In 2020, more video indicated conditions had not improved, and in 2021 the organization was running what appeared to be the only veterinary clinic in the area.

Image source: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

Tourism has steadily grown, with Petra receiving 1.2 million total visitors in 2019, reflecting its status as Jordan's most visited tourist attraction.

In December 2022, Petra was hit by heavy flooding, which posed risks to visitors and the fragile ancient structures of the site.