The Nabataeans built Petra, the ancient city famous for its rock-cut Treasury.
Petra lies in present-day Jordan and became the capital of the Nabataean Kingdom. The Nabataeans were an Arab trading civilization that controlled important caravan routes linking Arabia with the Mediterranean world. They transformed Petra’s narrow sandstone valleys into a major centre of commerce and monumental architecture.
The building commonly called the Treasury, or Al-Khazneh, was carved directly into a sandstone cliff, probably during the early 1st century CE. Despite its nickname, it was not necessarily a treasury; scholars have proposed that it may have been a royal tomb or ceremonial monument. Rome annexed the Nabataean Kingdom in 106 CE, after which Petra’s regional importance gradually declined. The city was not literally unknown for centuries, since local communities remained familiar with it before its modern rediscovery by European travellers.