Customer Reviews

Lost Civilization of Petra

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Udi Levy covers a lot of ground in this book to include Nabatean sites not within Petra proper as well. The book provides information on the rise of the Nabatean peoples and the subsequent rise of their cities and villages (Petra, of course being the focus). Their religion is analyzed, their agricultural practices looked at in detail, and more. This book even looks at neighboring cultures and provides compare-and-contrast analyses so that the reader can see Nabatean lifestyle in context of the region in which they lived.

Levy definitely did his homework before writing this book, and even looks at facts such as how much weight a camel can carry, and then deducing from this the total amount (cost-wise) of goods traders' caravan could carry across southwest Asia at the time (about a million dinars). This kind of attention to detail is most appreciated, and you will find it to be intriguing reading!!

The only disappointment, albeit a minor one, was that the conclusion left much to be desired. Levy writes 220 pages of insightful, thoughtful information then concludes with a single paragraph. I feel he could have wrapped it up a bit better than that, but even still, it doesn't detract from the wealth of information his book provides nevertheless.

Bought this book to show picts for my children before visiting this ancient city. There are not too many pictures in this book, there seems to be a lack of illustrated books of this city.