Siq

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Siq

al-Siq (translated: the shaft) is the main entrance to the ancient city of Petra

Petra

Petra is an Archaeology site in the Arabah, Ma'an Governorate, Jordan, lying on the slope of Mount Hor in a Depression among the mountains which form the eastern flank of Arabah , the large valley running from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba....
in southern Jordan

Jordan

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al-Siq (translated: the shaft) is the main entrance to the ancient city of Petra

Petra

Jordan

Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is an Arab country in Southwest Asia spanning the southern part of the Syrian Desert down to the Gulf of Aqaba....
. The dim, narrow gorge (in some points no more than 3 meters wide) winds its way approximately one mile and ends at Petra's most elaborate ruin, Al Khazneh (The Treasury).

The Siq is a natural geological fault produced by tectonic forces and worn smooth by water erosion. The walls that enclose the Siq stand between 91-182 meters (300-600 feet) in height.

The entrance to the Siq contains a huge dam, reconstructed in 1963 and again in 1991, designed to bar the mouth of the Siq and reroute the waters of Wadi Musa

Wadi Musa

Wadi Musa, ), is the name of a town located in the Aqaba Governorate in southern Jordan at latitude 30.317N and longitude : 35.483E.It is the nearest town to the archaeological site of Petra and hosts many hotels and restaurants for tourists visiting this place....
. The dam is a fairly true reconstruction of what the Nabataeans

Nabataeans

The Nabataeans were an ancient Semitic people, Arabs of southern Jordan, Canaan and the northern part of Arabia, whose oasis settlements in the time of Josephus gave the name of Nabatene to the borderland between Syria and Arabia, from the Euphrates to the Red Sea....
did to control Wadi Musa between the first century BC and the beginning of the first century AD. The entrance also contains the remnants of a monumental arch, of which only the two abutments and some hewn stones of the arch itself have survived. The arch collapsed in 1896 following an earthquake, but its appearance is known based on the lithograph works of David Roberts

David Roberts (painter)

David Roberts RA was a Scottish Painting. He is especially known for a prolific series of detailed prints of Egypt and the Near East produced during the 1840s from sketches made during long tours of the region ....
.

The Siq was used as the grand caravan entrance into Petra. Along both walls of the fissure are a number of votive niches containing baetyli
Baetylus

Baetylus or Bethel is a Semitic word denoting a sacred stone, which was supposedly endowed with life. These objects of worship were meteorites, which were dedicated to the gods or revered as symbols of the gods themselves The best known such object is the Black Stone in Mecca, and another one is mentioned as Bethel in Book of Genesis Ja...
, which suggest that the Siq was sacred to the Nabatean people. In 1998, a group of statues were uncovered when digging was conducted to lower the road by more than six feet. Although the upper part is greatly eroded, it is still possible to recognize the figures of two merchants, each leading two camels. The figures are almost twice lifesize.

Along the Siq are some underground chambers, the function of which has not yet been clarified. The possibility that they were tombs has been excluded and archaeologist find it difficult to believe that they were dwellings. The majority consensus is that they housed the guards that defended the main entrance to Petra.

Siq

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