T.J. Mueller
ART FROM ABOVE®
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Close up - Street of Facades
Close Up - Camel Riders
Experience in Jordon
Riding a bus away from Amman, Jordan, the modern world quickly dissolved into the vast, silent expanse of Wadi Rum—the “Roman Valley.” Civilization’s edges faded into the ochre desert, and I journeyed toward a city carved in stone by the Nabataeans two thousand years ago, a place where time itself seemed to hold its breath.
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By late afternoon, I arrived in Wadi Musa behind schedule, with only an hour of sunlight left to illuminate Petra’s legendary splendor. There was no time to spare. I mounted a horse and plunged into the Siq, the narrow canyon twisting like a secret passage through the cliffs. The Treasury emerged in a sudden blaze of color, its sandstone façade glowing against the deepening shadows, before we galloped on through the Street of Facades.
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The desert heat clung to me as I left the horse and guide behind, climbing higher along the cliff faces toward the High Place—the sacred site where ancient Nabataeans once offered living sacrifices to their gods. The wind whispered across the stone tombs, carrying echoes of centuries past.
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As the last light of day bathed the Red Rose City in a warm, ethereal glow, I sketched furiously, capturing the magic in quick, deliberate strokes. My camera followed every crevice, every carved niche, preserving the fleeting brilliance of Petra as the sun slipped behind the mountains. In that moment, the city felt alive—its ancient heartbeat echoing through the cliffs, a whisper of human devotion and artistry suspended in the desert air.
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—T.J. Mueller
About Petra
Petra—once known to its inhabitants as Raqmu—rises from the rugged mountains of southern Jordan like a city carved from the very bones of the Earth. Nestled on the slopes of Jabal Al-Madbah, in a basin among towering cliffs that form the eastern flank of the Arabah Valley, Petra’s beauty and ingenuity are as timeless as the desert wind that sweeps through its canyons.
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Believed to have been settled as early as 9,000 BC, Petra became the beating heart of the Nabataean Kingdom by the 4th century BC. Nomadic Arabs transformed the city into a dazzling hub of commerce, harnessing its position along ancient trade routes. Water was captured from the scarce desert rains, stone carved with precision, and wealth flowed through Petra like lifeblood. Its grandeur and prosperity drew envy and challenge alike; even the Greek Antigonids in 312 BC could not conquer a people who knew the secrets of the desert and the cliffs as intimately as their own hearts.
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Petra’s zenith arrived in the 1st century AD with the creation of Al-Khazneh, the Treasury, a monument carved with breathtaking artistry, thought to house the mausoleum of King Aretas IV. The city thrived, its streets alive with commerce, its walls echoing with the footsteps of some 20,000 inhabitants. Yet, history’s tide is relentless. Petra became a client state of Rome, lost its independence in 106 AD, and gradually succumbed to earthquakes, shifting trade routes, and the inexorable passage of time. Byzantine churches rose among the ruins, but by the early Islamic era, Petra was a whisper of its former glory—hidden, silent, and almost forgotten.
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Rediscovered in 1812 by Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, Petra revealed itself once more to the world, a city frozen in rose-colored stone. Entering through the 1.2-kilometer Siq, one emerges into a landscape both monumental and intimate, where every façade, tomb, and temple seems alive with the memory of a people who mastered the desert itself. Petra’s rock-cut architecture and ancient water systems are a testament to ingenuity and beauty, earning it a UNESCO World Heritage Site designation in 1985 and a place among the New7Wonders of the World.
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Petra is more than a city; it is the heartbeat of Jordan, a rose-colored jewel of human achievement standing eternal in the desert. To walk its streets is to witness the triumphs, ingenuity, and mysteries of a civilization that shaped history, and to feel, for a fleeting moment, the pulse of a kingdom carved in stone.