The most interesting discovery this morning while eating breakfast before work, hunched over my computer. Petra has a theater. I knew this outpost was Roman, built at the site of an older Nabatean city, and an important stopping point along the Silk Road, but never had I seen pictures of the theater. The first picture shows the image we're most familiar with, used in Harrison Ford's Raiders of the Lost Ark (I think). It makes sense there would be a theater, but I'm used to seeing the theater as a central focus, at least for the Greeks. For example, at Delphi, the monumental Temple to Apollo is immediately next to the theater and the stadium, at the top of the hill, part of an overall religious complex, fusing body and spirit. But perhaps by Roman times, with urban planning sort of a cookie cutter approach, the elements were just placed -- temple, administration, baths, and theater for secular and religious purposes. Ah, always more research needed and no time. But, I haven't written in a long time and just swiped 15 minutes from reading student papers to do this. Beth
Source of images: http://community.webshots.com/user/edo1972
Great PDF document that tells a bit more of the history of Petra, earthquakes, and the newly discovered Petra scrolls: http://srb.stanford.edu/nur/GP50/erica.pdf#search='Petra%20Roman%20outpost'