Central Petra Viewed From Northern Tower by Sarah Sharpe

Sarah Sharpe (July 16, 2008, 05:45AM )

This image was taken from the most northern point of the walled city of Petra. That point was marked by a circular tower (Conway tower) that was included as part of the city's fortifications. From this vantage point one can gain a sense of the undulating valley that forms the built up and cultivated areas of the city with the steep cliffs on either side. In its day and during the winter months this area would be filled with domestic and civic buildings as well as many garden plots and perhaps even some terraced fields in some of the outskirts of the town. It is also ringed and punctuated by the many funerary monuments that show how much a part of the vital landscape were the resting places of the departed.