Station: [17] Nabataean Houses

Unlike the public buildings with their magnificent façades, such as temples, tombs or the theatre, ordinary dwelling houses were long regarded as of lesser importance by researchers. Petra was sometimes even called a city of the dead and the gods, where no one lived except for the priests.

But actually, there’s evidence of settlements reaching back over several centuries before the Christian era. Postholes in terraces, and the levelling of the terrain, show that there were no permanent buildings during this phase. Instead, temporary tent-like structures were probably set up.

As they became permanently settled over the period from the fourth to the first century BC, the Nabataeans erected a few initial small buildings. A team from the Natural History Society has excavated a small house from this era. Its walls consisted of undressed stones, and the floor was rammed clay. People only went inside to sleep or prepare meals; they lived most of their everyday lives out of doors.

Most of these small buildings were later extended or replaced by larger structures, including two-storey buildings, for example. The living quarters on the upper floor had stuccoed and painted walls and a floor made of stone slabs. The remains of an oil press to produce olive oil were discovered the utility or work rooms on the ground floor. There was also a cistern to supply the inhabitants with drinking water

Over time, even more lavish villas were built. They had their own bathing facilities and magnificently decorated banqueting rooms, with mosaic floors and marble panelling on the walls. 

Alongside the built houses, there were also austere cave dwellings consisting of one or more rooms cut into the rock. Recesses in the walls served as storage spaces or shelves where small oil lamps might be placed. The wall paintings in these cave dwellings are often better preserved than those in the ruined houses. Here, too, there’s a mix of rooms used for commercial purposes and living quarters.