Sacred Sites - First Season

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In the rocky highlands of Jordan

and the shimmering deserts of Saudi Arabia

lie the remains of two fabled cities: Petra and Hegra.

Cut from the very rock, these towering buildings

are so dreamlike it is hard to believe they actually exist.

The people who built them were known as the Nabataeans.

Much of their story has faded from history.

But these astounding tombs and temples

hold profound secrets about their way of life.

In this society it seems

that there was a high status for women.

Ancient inscriptions and new discoveries

suggest that women wielded unrivaled power

in the lost kingdom of the Nabataeans.

It makes it very clear that women

have absolutely equal ownership rights with men.

Most of the ancient world was controlled by men.

But was the kingdom of Nabataea dominated by a lost matriarchy?

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The Wadi Araba desert, eastern Jordan.

This is a desolate and unforgiving place.

But it was once the hub of a great network of roads.

For centuries before and after Christ, caravans, camels

and people crossed this wilderness.

They were traders, carrying valuable goods

between Africa, the Far East and the Mediterranean.

The location of Nabataea is central

to the routes coming from Arabia, going up through Syria,

the Mediterranean and Egypt.

The traders dealt in many different types of goods.

But most of all, they supplied the precious items

that were in huge demand for medicine and religious rituals:

frankincense and myrrh.

These incenses were used by every religion

in the ancient world, from Rome to Athens to Jerusalem.

And they were key ingredients in ancient medicine.

Whoever controlled the trade in frankincense and myrrh

stood to make a lot of money.

The Nabataeans started as a nomadic tribe

who had no settled base.

When you do that you have to know where your water sources

are because it means you have to move your flocks and your herds

to places where there are water.

Using their secret knowledge of the water sources,

the Nabataeans were able to cross the desert

in the shortest possible time.

And of course where you save time,

you save a lot of money, and they became extremely rich.

The incense road started in southern Arabia

and traveled northwards through the Arabian Peninsula.

The Nabataeans controlled the crucial final stages

of this route, which ended at the ports of the Mediterranean.

And so the Nabataeans took advantage

of their position amid this landscape

and grew very, very wealthy

over the course of a relatively short span of time.

Little by little, they came to dominate the region.

Eventually, they settled down and began to build cities,

centers of power where they could control trade

even more effectively.

By 150 BC, they had established a vibrant kingdom of commerce.

At the intersection of several important trading routes,

the Nabataeans built an astonishing city

carved from red sandstone... Petra.

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Its name means simply "rock."

It is a wonderland of fabulous buildings...

Tombs and temples dedicated to the Nabataean gods.

Familiar to millions of Indiana Jones fans,

the carved facade of the majestic treasury

guards the entrance to Petra.

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Then there is the starkly beautiful monastery,

hewn into the sandstone cliffs to the west,

and the stately urn tomb,

the imposing mausoleum of a Nabataean ruler.

As striking as this place looks today, we can only guess

at what it must have been like in its heyday

the decades just before and after the birth of Christ.

It was a flourishing metropolis.

Judging by the size of the theater, we would say

that there were around thirty thousand people living here.

This may not be a large number by modern standards,

but if we consider that Rome, the largest city of that time,

was only one million people,

then this would have been a major city as well.

To carve the tombs and temples,

the city's builders used an unusual

but highly effective technique.

Starting from high on the rock face,

they worked their way downwards,

cutting away the stone as they went.

This is how they fashioned the elaborate and beautiful

sandstone tomb facades.

Petra was built from the top down.

Two thousand years ago,

as Nabataean they live in the mountain,

they carve, there is many different things.

Today, you know, there is many thing changed, you know.

The city now seems arid and parched,

a place of rock and dust.

It's hard to imagine that water ever flowed here.

But two thousand years ago, it was a man-made oasis.

Well, water was of course very important

for the Nabataeans, because in a desert environment

like southern Jordan or modern-day Saudi Arabia,

there aren't many natural water sources simply available.

But the Nabataeans, like a lot of Arabian peoples,

had to learn to capture and harvest and harness

natural water sources that they did have.

The Nabataeans took some of their water

from the springs that dotted the enclosing mountains.

But there was another vitally important source.

Every winter, this region sees storms and torrential rainfall.

The Nabataeans became experts in water conservation.

To ensure that not a drop of the precious liquid was wasted,

Nabataean engineers devised an ingenious system

of dams, channels and reservoirs.

They transformed Petra from a dry and dusty wasteland

into an idyllic place.

People lived, worked, loved and died

in this thriving wilderness paradise.

Without water there is no life,

and it is so important here especially in this arid climate,

and you need huge amounts of water

for all these caravans going through.

The Nabataeans prospered and multiplied.

But as their city grew, the demands for water

became ever greater.

When the supply slowed to a trickle after a long

and arid year, they sought aid from a divine force...

Not a god, but a goddess.

The Nabataeans worshiped three powerful female deities...

The goddess Al-Uzza, the powerful one,

Allat, whose name means simply goddess,

and Manat, the goddess of fate.

The people of Petra venerated them

at their great shrines and temples.

The Nabataeans themselves who lived within Petra

seemed to have worshiped in particular the goddess Al-Uzza,

who is simply termed the mightiest,

as we would translate it in English.

Long before the rise of Islam,

Al-Uzza was worshiped across the entire Arabian Peninsula.

Her image has been found throughout Petra,

carved on small blocks of stone.

For centuries, the Nabataeans used blocks

to represent their deities.

On some of these blocks they carved basic features...

Eyes and perhaps a nose. These images are known as eye idols.

Based on inscriptions we have around Petra

and other Nabataean sites, this type of figurine

is typically associated with Al-Uzza.

Al-Uzza was directly linked with Petra's

ever-present need for water.

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Right at the entrance to Petra,

there is a winding corridor of rock... the siq.

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After many twists and turns, it arrives at an awesome facade

of carved pillars, pediments and statues.

This incredible place is known as the treasury.

Many believe that it is the tomb of a Nabataean king,

Aretas IV.

But some say it is not a king's tomb but a shrine...

The sanctuary of the city's greatest deity.

A figure stands on the cupola that overlooks the entrance.

It is worn down by many centuries

of desert wind, rain and sun.

Today, it is hard to make out much detail.

But all experts agree that it is not the statue of a king,

or a god.

It is the statue of a woman... a goddess.

Standing on the facade of Petra's greatest building,

she represents the fortunes and spirit of the city.

But she is also important for another reason.

Directly beneath her, on the building's triangular pediment,

is the symbol of Isis, the Egyptian goddess of fertility.

Isis is the direct counterpart

of the Nabataean goddess Al-Uzza.

And like her Egyptian sister goddess, Al-Uzza was responsible

for fertility... and rainfall.

The Nabataeans prayed to Al-Uzza

for precious, life-giving water.

This could be why symbols of the goddess are found

all over Petra.

And she could be linked with the city's largest

and most imposing monument,

a massive sacred site known as the Monastery.

Many scholars believe that the Monastery

was built to honor a dead Nabatean king,

but astrophysicist Juan Antonio Belmonte

has verified that a remarkable manifestation takes place here

during the winter solstice.

This extraordinary new discovery could change everything

we thought we knew about Petra, Al-Uzza,

and the city's eternal prayer for water.

S and temples of ancient Petra

contain symbols of potent goddesses;