>>PREVIEW
PETRA: LOST CITY OF STONE
Runs until February 20
Glenbow Museum
The myths, majesty (and even some reality) of the Middle East have arrived at Glenbow Museum as part of a new exhibition, Petra: Lost City of Stone.
Petra, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985, is a multi-hued, but mostly reddish-coloured city located in Jordan that was carved out of the iron-hardened sandstone mountains of the Wadi Araba territory by the Nabataean civilization more than 2,000 years ago. Some 20,000 Nabataeans once lived in Petra – a point on an important trade route that extended from Africa to the Mediterranean.
"Rediscovered" by Swiss adventurer J.L. Burckhardt in 1812, Petra is a magical place that has captured the imaginations of traders and travellers for two millennia.
"It was one of the first cities that represented globalization," says Mike Robinson, president and CEO of Glenbow Museum. "Petra was a city that thrived on trade."
The exhibition was last presented in the U.S. at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It was co-curated by the Cincinnati Art Museum, which teamed up with the American Museum of Natural History in New York City to gather more than 200 artifacts that represent Petra from the first century BC to the third century AD. It makes its Canadian debut in Calgary before heading east to the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Gatineau, Quebec in the spring of 2006.
"There are magnificent stone sculptures that have come to Canada for the first time," says an enthusiastic Robinson. What allowed the Nabataeans the luxury of creating such monuments was their great wealth. They grew rich by taxing each camel train laden with spices and incense that travelled through the busy trade corridor near Petra.
It’s a lesson in economics not lost on the current ruler of Jordan, King Abdullah II, and his government. This time, instead of taxing traders transporting frankincense and myrrh, Jordan charges an entrance fee to the wide-eyed tourists that visit Petra from across the globe. And with more than 400,000 visitors making the trek to what has been referred to as the eighth wonder of the ancient world, it’s a strategy that seems to be working.
Now the Glenbow Museum is hoping to cash in on some of that popularity in Calgary with what looks to be a winning formula. Bring in some 2,000-year-old sculptures, mix in a little Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade buzz and you’re bound to have a hit, luring thousands of people through the turnstiles. With Petra: Lost City of Stone, the Glenbow is banking on a box office success during the busy Christmas season.
Yet trying to capture the essence of Petra in an exhibition is a lot like trying to appreciate the Rockies from inside your Banff Avenue hotel room. It can be done, but you have to stick your head out the window. Although in many ways staging an exhibition of this magnitude is a thankless job, the personnel from Cincinnati, New York and now Calgary have done exemplary work in presenting Petra to Western Canadians, using artifacts and 19th-century paintings alongside DVDs showing the site. No, they couldn’t move sandstone temples to the Glenbow, but they brought along some pieces that required a skilled forklift driver to put them into place.
One such weighty object is the bust of Dushara. Uncovered at the base of the Temenos Gate, it is believed to be a representation of a Nabataean god in a Greek style. It’s the kind of cross-pollination of cultures that epitomizes the story of Petra. The Nabataeans carved Petra out of the mountains – often to deify their gods – but the influences of civilizations including the Assyrians, Egyptians and Greeks can be viewed in the works on display.
"They all met on the trade route," says Robinson.
Another key piece in the exhibition is a frieze with figures representing Zodiac. Recovered by Jordan’s Department of Antiquities from the Khirbet ed-Dharih temple, this story-in-stone was toppled during an earthquake that hit the area in AD 363. It’s just another in a series of "wow" moments that happen each time you view rare treasures in such good condition from so long ago.
Shifting from ancient to modern, there’s an adjunct exhibition of photography by American photojournalist Vivian Ronay, entitled The Bedouin Tribes of Petra.
Based out of Washington D.C., Ronay has spent the past two decades photographing the Bedoul Bedouin people. Once a semi-nomadic tribe that lived in the caves of Petra, the Bedoul today are based in the nearby village of Umm Sayhun. In contrast with the sandstone mountains of Petra, their homes are built from cinder blocks. These small structures were constructed by the Jordanian government, which negotiated with the Bedoul to have them move out of Petra in order to encourage a more "tourist-friendly" environment.
It’s an important part of the Petra puzzle – a piece that has not been ignored in this exhibition. Stone carvings from ancient civilizations are fascinating, but the people who still live and work in and around the "rose-coloured city" are also an integral part of what is ultimately the continuing story of Petra.
Protecting Petra’s wonders
The masses are arriving at Petra – but is it good for the preservation of history?
It’s a question that’s on the minds of those who work to protect the ancient treasures, temples and monuments located there.
Patricia Bikai, the former director of the American Center of Oriental Research (ACOR), in Amman, Jordan, is urging the Jordanian government to think not only of the benefits of a robust tourism industry, but of conservation of the 2,000-year-old Petra site.
"The situation is improving," says Bikai. "And there is an awareness that much more needs be done to conserve Petra."
Erosion, the occasional flash flood and a flood of people are all contributing to Petra’s endangerment. Walk through the 1.2 kilometre siq (gorge) to see the Treasury and you will be joined by a cavalcade of tourists going to the same spot, carried by donkeys, camels and chariots. Besides leaving their foul-smelling deposits, these beasts of burden also raise clouds of dust as they gallop by, contributing to the erosion of the city’s sandstone structures.
Many of the human animals are no less a problem, tramping through areas that are designated as off-limits and strewing litter across this magnificent ancient city. It’s enough to make a Nabataean cry.
If you want to visit Petra to see its history, great. But walk, don’t litter, stay off the monuments and think about contributing financially to one of the organizations – such as the non-profit ACOR – that’s dedicated to preserving the eighth wonder of the ancient world. |
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