The extent of the Nabataean kingdom (flourished 168 B. C.-A. D. 106) is not known with certainty, but some historian that think during the peak it stretched from modern day Yemen to Damascus and from western Iraq into the Sinai Desert (Ortloff, 2005). Others define the kingdom as including Jordan, the Hawran in southern Syria, the
Sinai, the Negev, a large part of the Hijaz in north-western Arabia and for a short time Damascus (Ruben, 2003). The empire was positioned between the Egyptian, Babylonian, and Assyrian empires so that there were many influences that dominated the Nabataean culture. The use of pipelines, canals, and cisterns, and even qanats was established long before Nabataean times. These previously established technologies were surely available during the planning and development of the Petra’s water system. The ancient city of Petra is located in southwestern Jordan, situated in a large open valley surrounded by ragged mountains with limestone slopes at the top and sandstone down to the wadis. Figure 1.15 Shows a map of the ancient city of Petra.
A constant year-round water supply for the urban population was made difficult because of the variation in seasonal rainfall and spring flows. Limited water resources from rainfall and springs along with the mountainous terrain required unique thinking by the Nabataeans to apply water technologies. The Nabataeans built dams, diversion walls, and terraces, and dug cisterns and reservoirs to store water. They built channels and aqueducts to bring water from springs. The verb nabat in Arabic means for water “to percolate from underground to the surface,” derived from anbata meaning “to dig for water” or “to draw water from underground.”
World History
