Little Petra — Siq al-Barid

1 · POSITION

Siq al-Barid, Little Petra, lies about eight kilometres north of Petra and is named by UNESCO among the outlying caravan staging posts on the city’s northern approaches. Archaeologists read it as a suburb of the Nabataean capital that housed merchants travelling the trade routes. The register holds it as the practical half of the Nabataean system — stopping, provisioning, water and negotiation. [1, 2]

2 · DINING HALLS

Its second open court holds four large triclinia, dining halls cut in the rock, and a biclinium, the Painted Room, whose wall paintings survive. Halls for eating together are the clearest sign that this was a place where traders were received, not simply passed through. [2]

3 · THE CISTERN

A large cistern on the north side, opposite the Painted Room, belonged to the original water system. Little Petra is thought to have been established in the first century AD and is part of Petra’s World Heritage inscription. [1, 2]

4 · BESIDE THE CAPITAL

Petra itself is entered under its own code. The register files the two together: the monumental city and the yard outside it where the caravan was fed. [1]

5 · ⚑ CANDOUR

⚑ The reading of Little Petra as a merchants’ suburb is archaeologists’ interpretation, as the source says. Its exact relation to the trade routes is not dated. [1–2]