1 · POSITION
Petra, the rock-cut capital of the Nabataeans in southern Jordan, was a great caravan centre at the crossroads of Arabia, Egypt and Syria-Phoenicia, through which passed the incense of Arabia, the silks of China and the spices of India. UNESCO inscribed it in 1985. The register holds it as the capital of the people who made the desert pay its way. [1]
2 · WATER IN AN ARID LAND
A water system of channels, tunnels, diversion dams and a vast network of cisterns and reservoirs allowed settlement on a large scale in an essentially arid place through the Nabataean, Roman and Byzantine periods. A caravan could stop at Petra because Petra had made its own water. [1]
3 · THE CITY
The main entrance from the east is the Siq, a narrow winding cleft in the rock, which opens on the Khazneh. The monuments are of the first centuries BC and AD; the Nabataean civilisation it records runs from the fourth century BC to the first century AD. [1]
4 · THE STAGING POSTS
The inscription includes the outlying caravan staging posts on the northern approaches — Siq al-Barid, Little Petra, which the register holds under its own code. The capital and its stations belong to one system. [1, 2]
5 · ⚑ CANDOUR
⚑ Checked on 22 October 2026. That the Nabataeans charged the caravans is confirmed: they levied tolls on the incense trade passing through their territory. Petra’s Roman annexation is not dated here. [1–3]
Sources & Further Reading
Sources checked 22 October 2026.