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Petra: A city born from water
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In a time of dramatic climate change, perhaps it might be wise to see how ancient civilizations reconciled environmental challenges with their own survival. After all, the city of Petra thrived in the desert for centuries as a prosperous trading crossroads to the ancient world.
By utilizing savvy management techniques in the midst of a dry, rocky and inhospitable region, Petra became a city born from water.
The Nabateans were some of Petra’s earliest settlers, nomadic traders who used the easily defended canyon walls as a storage area for their more precious cargo. By approximately 100 B.C., this area had consolidated into a more permanent commercial center made all the more attractive by its centralized location on two major trading causeways - one leading to Asia and the other leading south to Arabia.
Hauling wares from Arabia to the Mediterranean was a risky business that required keen knowledge of the desert. The Nabateans provided shelter and water – for a fee – at strategically placed settlements along the caravan routes. Yet it took much more than just a tracker’s geographic knowledge of barren wastelands to eventually support a city of 20,000.
Petra’s hidden advantage was that the city was located in and around perennial streams. Developing the technology to harness and manage this constant water supply meant the surrounding desert could be transformed into a fertile oasis, complete with wealth-increasing crops.
Originally, a low, open channel system was used to fulfill water needs but as the city grew larger and more crops were planted, additional measures were needed. Here, the American Museum of Natural History notes that:
“Systems of strategically placed rock-cut gutters lined with watertight plaster, combined with terracotta pipelines, followed the natural landscape to feed nearly 200 cistern tanks, many reservoirs and a public fountain house…According to a recent calculation, Petra's aqueduct system carried about 40 million liters (12 million gallons) of fresh spring water per day—enough to sustain a modern-day American population of more than 100,000.”
A prior disadvantage later mitigated by this same management system, was the frequent flash flooding. By utilizing a system of dams and reservoirs of above, and below-ground cisterns, the Nabateans provided stores of fresh water for the city during drought seasons. Additionally, these caches became a very profitable commodity when others who hadn’t been so far-seeing in their water saving measures, were forced to re-supply from Petra officials.
Charles R. Ortloff, a fluids engineer assisting archeologists studying ancient canal systems, also points out how maintaining such a system would require an in-depth knowledge of surveying and equipment techniques for this type of mountainous terrain. Impressive indeed, considering that Petra existed over 2,000 years ago.
Unfortunately, there was one natural disadvantage that couldn’t be overcome: a high level of seismic activity.
In 363 A.D., a massive earthquake appears to have destroyed half the city and severely damaged its water supply lines. Petra was unable to shake itself free from the destruction. Between the lingering devastation, the eventual Roman conquest in 106 A.D., and the changing emphasis from land caravans to sea trade routes, the city began its slow decline back into the sand.
More Resources:
• Charles R. Ortloff: The Water Supply and Distribution System of the City of Petra
• The American Museum of Natural History: Petra: Lost City of Stone
• National Geographic Photo Gallery
• Introduction to the Nabataean Empire
• In Search of Petra: John Lewis Burkhardt
• BBC article: Jordan suffering from tourist drought
• A New Seventh Wonder of the World
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