The Treasury of Ancient Petra: How Was it Made? | Ancient Architects

Last week I made a video on the incredible Petra theatre, which like many of the structure we still see in this part of Jordan, was cut straight from the sandstone mountains. All of these structures were carved from around 500 BC and for several hundred years that followed, through various different phases of history, from Naboteaan rule through to Roman. One of the most incredible structures is The Treasury, one of the largest and most elaborate in Petra and thought to be the mausoleum of the Nabatean King Aretas IV of the 1st century AD, when Petra was a city state of the Roman Empire. But how was The Treasury even carved in the first place? The iron and steel tools of the day would have had no problem cutting the sandstone and the interiors can be explained with conventional methods, but it’s the outward facing façade, it’s huge size on a sheer, almost vertical rock face that puzzles so many people. It was certainly cut with convention tools as we can still see the clear to