Al-Khazneh

1. Al-Khazneh

2. INTRODUCTION Al-Khazneh(The treasure in Arabic) isoneofthemostelaboratetemplesintheancientArabNabateanKingdomcityofPetra. Aswithmostoftheotherbuildingsinthisancienttown, includingtheMonastery, thisstructurewascarvedoutof a sandstonerockface.ThetreasurywasbuiltbytheArabNabateans, coincidingwiththetimeoftheHellenisticandRomanEmpiresandsohasclassicalGreek-influencedarchitecture. Thetempleis a populartouristattractioninbothJordanandtheregion.

3. HISTORY Al-Khaznehwasoriginallybuiltas a mausoleumandcryptatthebeginningofthe 1st century AD duringthereignofAretas IV Philopatris.  ItsArabicnameTreasuryderivesfromonelegendthatbanditsorpirateshidtheirlootin a stoneurnhighonthesecondlevel. Significantdamagefrombulletscanbeseenontheurn. LocalloreattributesthistoBedouins, whoaresaidtohaveshotattheurnintheearly 20th century, inhopesofbreakingitopenandspillingoutthe "treasure"—butthedecorativeurnisinfactsolidsandstone. Anotherlegendisthatitfunctionedas a treasuryoftheEgyptianPharaohatthetimeofMoses.Manyofthebuilding'sarchitecturaldetailshaveerodedawayduringthetwothousandyearssinceitwascarvedandsculptedfromthecliff. Thesculpturesarethoughttobethoseofvariousmythologicalfiguresassociatedwiththeafterlife. Ontoparefiguresoffoureaglesthatwouldcarryawaythesouls. ThefiguresontheupperlevelaredancingAmazonswithdouble-axes. TheentranceisflankedbystatuesofthetwinsCastorandPolluxwholivedpartlyonOlympusandpartlyintheunderworld.

4. Effects of tourism It is in the last three decades of the 20th century that tourism has really taken off. Tourism has been industrialized: landscapes, cultures, cuisines, and religions are consumer goods displayed in travel brochures. Since the rediscovery of Petra on August 22nd 1812 by the Swiss traveller J. Burckhardt, explorers and tourists alike have been attracted to the red rose city of Petra. It raised its public profile with an appearance in the movie Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade. At the entrance to one of the ruined temples of Petra in Jordan, there is an inscription chiselled into the soft red rock. At first glance it looks as if it has been there for centuries, but upon closer inspection the words revealed, “Shane and Wendy from Sydney were here. April 16th 1996” are not so ancient after all. Recent reports have concluded that the irreplaceable buildings of Petra ‘are in grave danger of being destroyed by the unstoppable march of tourism’. There are over 4,000 tourists a day that trudge through Petra’s rocky tombs, wearing away the delicate red sandstone to dust and vandalise it’s walls by chiselling it away to put in a meaningless bunch of words.Ugly concrete and sometimes modern stone buildings started ruining the beautiful landscape that was Wadi Musa when urban expansion went unchecked after the tourism boom occurred in the 90s.

5. Even attempts to paint the concrete with a pinkish colour failed to blend well with the natural setting. There is a village, built in 1983, that has been one of the many causes of scenic pollution. Children from this village have the bad habit of leaving school and climbing down the slope to sell worthless trinkets to tourists, and sometimes even illegally acquired ancient artefacts.Among other things, The Wadi Musa -Al Taybeh road was widened with a minute amount of consideration was given to the conservation of the site. Even though an environmental impact study was conducted, there have been some serious problems that have arisen from implementation of the project. There was a percentage of Juniper trees lost due to the cuts made into the flanking hills of the road to widen it, and although the percentage was not very high, all the soil and rubble of the excavations was dumped into the western cliffy side of the road.

6. This has now changed the terrain and risked carrying over the rubble to Petra itself during the rainy season.An economic impact is the increase in the number of tourism facilities and services; 38 accommodations of different types are existing in Petra, these are distributed as follows: 6 five stars hotels, 2 stars hotels, 7 three star hotels, 2 two star hotels, 8 one star hotels, 1 camp and 12 unclassified hotels. Moreover, tourists' nights in Petra's different accommodations were 577,888 nights (forming 25.3% share of tourist nights in Jordan), with 1.93 as an average length of stay. Another threat facing Petra is the rising level of humidity resulted by the crowds of the tourists present at the site, which is an obstacle facing the preservation of sandstone.