ABSTRACT
Chiseled out of reddish Nubian sandstone, the physical landscape of Petra evokes the Nabataean era. Abandoned tombs and stone rubble, covering the flanks of the wadis that were once residences or public buildings, are nestled in the great rift mountains overlooking Wadi ‘Arabah—they all speak eloquently of the bustling city of Petra that used to be. The city’s consciousness has not escaped the archaeologist and Petra enjoys a high place on the agenda of archaeology. A host of familiar icons, including al-Khazna (the Treasury), ad-Dayr (the Monastery), the Bab as-Siq (the breathtaking entry to the city), the 800 plus tomb complexes, not to mention Indiana Jones—have given the Petrean capital a tremendous sense of identity. A sense of place matters. Petra is a place people care about. The Brown University excavations of the Great Temple for 14 years, literally, have grounded our team here since 1993. For the reader’s convenience, an aerial view of the Petra Great Temple is provided in Figure 1 and the site plan is shown in Figure 2.
