The Nabataeans: Builders Of Petra

by Dan Gibson

Every year thousands of tourists visit the spectacular city of Petra, the ancient capital of the Nabataean Empire. Here massive monuments have been carved out of the ancient Jordanian mountains. Hundreds of magnificent tombs looked down on a city complete with colonnaded streets, coliseums, baths, temples, gardens and pools. Who were the people who carved this city into the red rose, sandstone mountains of Arabia? Why did they hide their city in a cleft in the rock? Why did they come here and why did they leave this spectacular site? Today archeologists and historians are piecing together the answers to these puzzling questions. And as the pieces slowly fall together, a picture is emerging of a fascinating people who traveled from China to Rome, building an empire of incredible wealth and opulence. Discover the fascinating story and mystery that surrounds this ancient The Nabataeans. To learn more, visit

Genres: History

298 pages, Paperback

Published March 23, 2004

About the author

Author of over a dozen non-fiction book. Dan's first fiction book was published December 2023.

Reviews

[Jake Leech]

I wanted a book on the Nabataeans, the secretive, partly nomadic people who built Petra, and this twenty-year-old, apparently unedited volume seemed like the best of the few options available. Gibson's clearly a smart guy who has spent a lot of time in the Middle East and spent a lot of time studying the Nabataeans, and I learned a lot. But the writing is repetitive (the same passage from Diodorus' Bibliotheca Historica gets quoted at least a half dozen times), and he veers into (intelligent and informed!) speculation regularly.

If you want to read about the Nabataeans, this might be your best bet. It's good, but not great.