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The main
entrance to the city, a canyon 1.2 km. long, starts with an
arch, the remains of which can still be seen, and a dam that
is still doing its job. The dam was built by the Nabataeans
to stop floods caused by rain water from coming into the Siq,
and redirect it through a tunnel into Wadi
Al Muthlim, to get to the center of the city and then
west all the way to Wadi Araba.
The Siq
used to carry water coming from the Musa spring in Wadi Musa,
into Petra through two water channels that can be seen on
both its sides. One of the channels is carved in the rock
while the other is made from ciramic pipes, the remains of
these pipes can be seen in the Siq and some are exhibited
in the museum in Petra.
The walk
through the Siq will introduce you to red sand rock of Petra,
as well as the art of the Nabataeans. Many relief sculptures
are carved on both sides of this canyon, mostly representing
gods in niches, carved in the early Nabataean style, basic
forms, cubes, columns with the simpliest capitals, some are
with inscriptions mentioning the name of the maker (sculptor)
and the name of the man who ordered the sculpture and the
name of the god to whom it is dedicated, with the date it
was created. Most of these dedications are made by pilgrims
to Petra, most are written in Greek. The niches with gods
were called "masjada" 1,page
221 in Nabataean, the word in Arabic "masjed"
means a mosque.
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