Question 1

True or false: The Monastery in Petra is larger than the Treasury.

Accepted Answer

True. Ad-Deir (The Monastery) is 50 meters wide and 45 meters tall, significantly larger than the Treasury’s 30-meter facade.

Question 2

True or false: Petra was a filming location for 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade'.

Accepted Answer

True. The Treasury facade served as the entrance to the Holy Grail temple in the 1989 film, boosting Petra's global fame.

Question 3

True or false: Petra's Al-Khazneh temple was used as a filming location for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Accepted Answer

True. Al-Khazneh, also known as the Treasury, appeared in the 1989 film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade as the entrance to the Holy Grail.

Question 4

True or false: Petra is carved into sandstone cliffs and is called the Rose City.

Accepted Answer

True. Petra's rock-cut architecture is hewn from rose-red sandstone, giving the site its nickname 'Rose City' due to the stone's color at sunrise and sunset.

Question 5

True or false: Petra is located in modern-day Egypt.

Accepted Answer

False. Petra is in southwestern Jordan, not Egypt. It lies in the desert canyons of Jordan's Ma'an Governorate, about 240 km south of Amman.

Question 6

True or false: Petra was originally built by the Romans as a trading post.

Accepted Answer

False. Petra was built by the Nabataeans, not Romans. Romans later annexed it in 106 AD, but they didn't found it.

Question 7

True or false: Petra was the capital of the Nabataean Kingdom in the 4th century BC.

Accepted Answer

True. Petra served as the capital of the Nabataean Kingdom from around the 4th century BC until the Roman annexation in 106 AD.

Question 8

True or false: Petra’s famous Treasury was actually a royal tomb, not a bank.

Accepted Answer

True. Despite its name, Al-Khazneh (The Treasury) is a mausoleum and crypt for a Nabataean king, carved in the 1st century BC.

Question 9

True or false: Only about 20% of Petra has been excavated by archaeologists.

Accepted Answer

True. Most of Petra remains buried. Excavations have revealed less than a fifth of the city, leaving much still underground.

Question 10

True or false: Petra was never inhabited after the 7th century AD.

Accepted Answer

False. Petra was largely abandoned after a series of earthquakes, but Bedouins lived in the caves until the 1980s.

Question 11

True or false: The Treasury building in Petra was used as a royal treasury.

Accepted Answer

False. Al-Khazneh is a Nabataean tomb, not a treasury. Its name comes from a legend that pirates hid treasure in the urn on top, but archaeologists confirm it was a burial site.

Question 12

True or false: Petra was constructed by the Roman Empire during their occupation.

Accepted Answer

False. The Nabataeans built Petra centuries before the Roman annexation in 106 AD. Romans later added structures like the colonnaded street, but the city's core is Nabataean.

Question 13

True or false: Petra had a population of over 100,000 people at its peak.

Accepted Answer

False. Scholarly estimates place Petra's peak population between 10,000 and 30,000. The arid environment limited water supply, making a city of 100,000 inhabitants impractical.

Question 14

True or false: Petra was flooded annually by the Nile River.

Accepted Answer

False. Petra is in southern Jordan, far from the Nile. Flash floods occur, but they're from local rains, not the Nile.

Question 15

True or false: Petra was rediscovered by Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt in 1812.

Accepted Answer

True. Burckhardt disguised himself as an Arab traveler and convinced locals to guide him to Petra, then unknown to the Western world.

Question 16

True or false: Petra has an advanced water system that used lead pipes.

Accepted Answer

False. Nabataeans used clay pipes and channels, not lead. They were masters of water conservation in the desert.

Petra Trivia Questions