Petra is revealed to Europeans

Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, disguised as a Muslim scholar, reached Petra in modern Jordan. The city had been carved into sandstone by the Nabataeans.

Context

Burckhardt was traveling toward Egypt in 1812 for a British learned society when he heard local stories of ruins in the valley near Wadi Musa. He took on the identity of a Muslim pilgrim and said he wished to sacrifice a goat at the tomb of Aaron, a pretext that let him pass through the site.

Disguise was thought necessary because outsiders were often viewed with suspicion in the region and his real purpose, studying antiquities, might have raised alarm or hostility. He could take only limited notes and had to avoid being seen sketching.

Petra was the capital of the Nabataean kingdom, whose wealth grew from controlling caravan routes for incense and spices. Rome annexed the kingdom in 106 CE. The city later declined as trade patterns shifted and earthquakes, including a major one in the 4th century CE, damaged it.

Petra became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1985. Locals never forgot it, so rediscovery here means that Europeans learned of it, not that it had vanished.

Archaeologists estimate that only a fraction of the ancient city has been excavated, and work still turns up tombs, water systems and buildings that change the picture of how Petra functioned.