Petra hopes to become one of the new Seven Wonders
The Source: Yemen Observer - 30/06/2007
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The famed Jordanian city of Petra includes some of the most momentous
work of the Nabatean stonecutters. The intricate and technologically
advanced city, carved right out of the area’s stone, has been inspiring visitors for generations. A Petra Carnival was held last Friday by the Jordanian Social Club in Sana’a, in the hope of rallying support for Petra’s inclusion in the new list of the Seven Wonders of the World. New Seven Wonders of the World is a proposed revision of the Seven Wonders of the World, organized by a Swiss-based, for-profit corporation called New Open World Corporation.
The selection is being made by free and paid votes, through telephone or online. The first vote is free to registered members and additional votes may be purchased through a payment to NOWC. In addition to the sale of votes, NOWC relies on private donations, the sale of merchandise such as shirts and cups, and revenue from selling broadcasting rights. The new Seven Wonders of the World will be announced On July 7. Voting can be done via e-mail or telephone, and the online free polling center at the Club Headquarter was opened, to facilitate the voting process.
The carnival, which was attended by the Jordanian community, a number of Arab and foreign diplomatic missions, and Yemeni citizens, sought to encourage people from Yemen and out of Yemen to vote for the so-called Red Rose city of Petra. Participants expect to collect more than a million votes for Petra from Yemen before July 7, when the results will be announced in Lisbon. <br> Participants called on others to vote for the Petra, in order to add more honors to the record of the Arab civilizations. “Voting for Petra to be one of the new Seven Wonders of the World is very important, because its winning will make it the ambassador of the civilized and historical Arab world,” said Ahmad Jaradat, Jordanian ambassador in Sana’a.
Jaradat said that the Yemenis who vote for Petra will have a profound and good effect on their brothers in Jordan, and there will be a new line in the record of fraternal and distinctive relations between the countries. "The international competition to choose the new Seven Wonders of the World is a unique one, and may not be repeated until after hundreds of years, therefore it is imperative for everyone to participate in the voting," he said. Jaradat said that the city of Petra, located in the south of Jordan, was built by the Arab Anbat, who originates from Yemen. He called on all of Yemenis and Jordanians and the Arab and foreign communities in Yemen to participate in the voting for Petra.
The carnival also included a symposium, entitled “Petra, a History and Civilization,” reviewed by Muhammad al-Nod, the executive director of, the Protection of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage Foundation, and Dr. Muhammad Balsamah, from the Heritage Department in Sana'a University. They talked about the historical emergence of Petra, a city hewn from stones in a unique architectural way. They also discussed Petra’s ancient civilization, its cultural progress, and its artistic sense. They also talked about the archeological sites contained in the walls of the city. Seventy-seven monuments are nominated in the competition for the new Seven Wonders of the World, of which 21 are finalists for the title. Other finalists include: the Acropolis of Athens, Angkor Wat in Cambodia, the Easter Island Moals, France’s Eiffel Tower, China’s Great Wall, Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia, Peru’s Macchu Picchu, and the United Kingdom’s Stonehenge.
Petra is such an iconic image that it requires no identification, said al-Nod. "It is a Yemeni campaign to represent Arab civilization."
He spoke about the greatness of Petra as one of the wonders that must receive enough votes to be one of the Seven Wonders. He expressed the willingness of Sana'a University to mobilize students to vote for Red Rose city and promote her.
Basalamah pointed out that Petra was a bastion of Arab people who migrated from the land of Yemen more than 2,000 years ago, to settle in South Jordan and maintain the Nabataean Kingdom, which was the first Arab country in history to be able to control one of the most important trade routes in the Arab countries, and spread at the height of their power to Damascus and parts of the Sinai Desert and the Negev Desert. Petra has become the focus of widespread admiration for its high culture and the prestigious style of the buildings that contain unique human creations in their basins, dams, and water channels, said Basalamah.
Muhammad No'man, curator of the Jordanian Social Club, said that this celebration was organized to encourage citizens of Yemeni, Arab and foreign communities to vote for the city of Petra to become one of the new Seven Wonders of the world, and that there is a real possibility for Petra to win, although it competes with archaeological and historic sites which has a population up to more than one billion people. The JSC distributed a statement to the attendees, who numbered more than 1,000, to stand behind the Red Rose city so as to eventually celebrate the victory of Petra on July 7.
Petra was first established sometime around the 6th century BC, by the Nabataean Arabs, a nomadic tribe who settled in the area and laid the foundations of a commercial empire that extended into Syria. Despite successive attempts by the Seleucid king Antigonus, the Roman emperor Pompey, and Herod the Great to bring Petra under the control of their respective empires, Petra remained largely in Nabataean hands until around 100AD, when the Romans took over.
It was still inhabited during the Byzantine period, when the former Roman Empire moved its focus east to Constantinople, but declined in importance thereafter. The Crusaders constructed a fort there in the 12th century, but soon withdrew, leaving Petra to the local people until the early 19th century, when it was visited by the Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt.
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