Treasures with Bettany Hughes

-I'm traveling the world exploring secrets and wonders.

This is really tight.

An adventure by land and sea to the most fascinating places...

This is absolutely incredible.

...where I've been given special access to significant and surprising treasures...

It's so tiny and absolutely unique.

...buried in ancient sites, extraordinary buildings and glorious works of art.

That help to explain the story of us.

Journey with me to discover how the past shapes our lives.

I'm making my way through one of the most epic landscapes on earth, the Arabian Desert.

Although when you say the word desert, you imagine a kind of desolate emptiness.

This northern edge of the Arabian Peninsula has been a vital crossroads for East and West for millennia.

It's only recently that a lot of the hidden treasures around me, natural and cultural, are being explored and understood.

I'm here to uncover the history of ancient Arabia from 6000 BCE to the third century CE in northwest Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

Enjoying privileged access to one of the most spectacular wonders of the world, Petra.

It's a rare opportunity to make new discoveries and to uncover some of the missing links in history's big story.

Welcome to the treasures of Arabia.

The northwestern Arabian Peninsula.

From prehistory to antiquity, a hub of great civilizations only now being systematically investigated and interpreted.

Stretching across different territories at different times, ancient Arabia spanned a vast area, including what's now modern day Saudi Arabia and southern Jordan.

My first treasure is the staggering art of this extraordinary place, the Hisma Plateau.

This remote region in the north west of Saudi Arabia is rarely visited.

Recently, it's opened up to researchers, but through the millennia, both travelers and locals have made their mark here.

Leaving remarkable clues in the form of a rather unique message board.

These are messages that chart thousands of years of the human experience.

So right at the end there, you've got an early Islamic prayer right from the very beginning of Islam.

So that's around 1,400 years old.

This kind of big, loopy, very confident writing was set down by the Nabataean civilizations, and the Nabataeans were in charge at around the time of the Romans.

And that doesn't see this sort of strange script here that goes up and down.

That's something called Talmudic, which is from the fifth century BCE.

So it's 2,500 years old.

And then all down here you've got prehistoric rock art.

So there are two men who are dancing, or they might be fighting.

There's somebody who looks like he's going on a hunt with a bow and arrow.

There are ibex that are being hunted, and man's best friend's, dogs, are all around.

So this is a map of time, but it's also a treasure map that leads us to the wealth on rock faces like this.

And in the valleys of this incredible plateau.

The rock art here takes us right back to the beginnings of ancient Arabia before time as we know it.

It's a kind of ancient pinboard, a way of communicating messages to passersby.

And there are thousands of engravings.

Animals, idols, hunting scenes, traveler's tales, all painting a picture of life from the Stone Age right up to the Middle Ages.

This art is always telling us something.

Whether it's a fact or a hope or a fear or a belief, the people who made it.

And now this example is between 6,000 and 8,000 years old.

So we don't know exactly what those two figures are.

We don't know whether they're humans or spirits or the beginnings of the idea of some sort of gods, but it's definitely about people's relationship with the natural world.

The carvings were left by nomads and settlers.

So how did people make a life for themselves in such a barren terrain?

The Stone Age images of cattle like this are a vital clue that the landscape around here was once completely different.

Now cows need a lot of greenery to survive, and images like this, combined with really recent analysis of fossils and mineral deposits, tell us that Arabia used to be much, much greener.

There would have been thousands of rivers here and over 10,000 lakes, so the whole landscape would have been much greener, more verdant, more like a kind of Paradise.

It was only around 5,000 or so years ago that the conditions became much drier, and the landscape turns into the desert that it is today.

All explaining why this became a perfect place for some early inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula to settle down and become farmers.

And there are other tantalizing clues to the lives of these Stone age settlers.

Well, I've been walking through this landscape.

I keep on seeing these really quite strange, massive stone circles on the mountain side, which I think must be something to do with ritual.

But I managed to find an expert, AbdulAziz, who's going to decode them for me.

Salam.

Hello, Bettany.

-Hello.

-How lovely to meet you.

-Nice to meet you.

-Thank you so much.

What an extraordinary place this is.

-It's one of the biggest stone structures in NEOM.

You can see this one contains two.

One above the hill and one below.

-Yes.

-One out of the circle, one inside the circle.

I'm not sure if there is a meaning, but it's very interesting.

-Yeah.

Well, I mean, you're certainly it's such a prominent position, this, isn't it?

So you're clearly publicizing, you know, status with something this size.

-For real.

-So what are we standing in?

What is this?

-This is actually one of the biggest burials here in Hisma Plateau.

-So a burial for one person or for a family?

-It's a burial for more than one person.

Actually it's ground burial, and each stone a heavy like around from five to 10 kilogram.

And in one meter you might find from 50 to 70.

So we can't imagine how many tons it needs to do this structure and how many times as well.

-So do you think because the circles seem to be different sizes, so is it somebody of massive status?

He's got a massive circle.

-We believe that the bigger the circles, the bigger the position of the family or the person who was in this burial.

But again, a lot of mysteries there.

And we need to do a lot of excavation to understand more.

-This is a really big circle, but it looks like to me like there are others in the landscape.

-Actually, yes.

-In each hill in the road, I mean, you can find those big structures, and actually we were amazed.

When we were young, I mean, we came here, like, doing picnics and stuff, but we do not understand what's this.

Now it's time to understand what's the value of those structure.

-As this land became more like a desert, farming slowly gave way to trade and ancient trade inroads here with the establishment of Islam became pilgrimage routes for many, making the Hajj to Mecca.

The faithful etching messages and prayers on the rocks as they passed.

This is a really interesting example.

So you've got somebody who's come here and has inscribed his name, but he's done it on top of older rock art left by locals who are very proud of the fact that they have 10 camels here -- one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine 10 up at the top with two little dogs.

And this guy, he would have been on the Hajj on his way to Mecca.

We know his name.

He was called Musa, son of Salam, and he's obviously so delighted to be here.

He's written his name again and again and again.

Now, the people who witnessed all this across the centuries are the Bedouin.

And I've had an invitation to meet the modern day descendants of those eyewitnesses of history.

-[ Speaking in native language ] -The Bedouin tribes of northwest Saudi Arabia maintain customs dating back thousands of years.

So there's this really ancient tradition of hospitality here with the Bedouin.

And they heard I was in the region.

And AbdulAziz has told me that they've invited me for coffee and tea, I think.

Bedouin literally means desert dweller.

Evidence for desert nomads in the region starts 8,000 years ago, and Bedouins have both fought interlopers and offered traders and pilgrims hospitality right back to the time when travelers were creating some of their early rock art.

-So this is dates, and with the olive.

-Is it like a goat cheese or something?

-Goat cheese, yes.

With goat cheese.

So this is the way they provide it in hospitality.

-Thank you.

Thank you.

[ Conversing in native language ] Oh, those are delicious.

Those are really fresh.

-Yeah.

-Mm, fantastic.

-Grounded.... -AbdulAziz AlSanousi is my guide and translator.

Why is it such a tradition?

Is it because this is a place in the world where lots of different people have been traveling for many centuries?

Is that why hospitality is so important to the Bedouin?

-[ Speaking in native language ] -I would love to.

[ Speaks native language ] Songs and poetry are exchanged at family gatherings like this.

Like the rock art, they've long been a way for the Bedouin to communicate stories and information.

Dances to pass on tales of the Bedouin's History.

[ Singing in native language ] The women's quarter is called the harem.

-[ Speaking in native language ] -Okay.

So, yeah.

So you're giving me the recipe, aren't you?

Because I understand the word [speaks native language] is water.

So water and flour, you mix it together?

This is very traditional for women to be making bread, but also the Bedouin women are often shepherdesses.

So you'll often see them outside on the mountains, taking the goats and the sheep outside for the whole day.

Oh, look at these.

They're so beautiful.

Hello.

Hello.

Hello, little one.

It's a treat to meet Bedouin women in their own home.

Thank you.

Thank you.

It's such a beautiful tent, this.

Six months?

It's beautiful.

And I have to say, I love your eyeliner.

[ Laughs ] It's beautiful though, because it's very.

Is it the [speaks native language]?

Perfect.

If I come back, will you show me how to do it?

Bedouins say they give their last grain of rice and morsel of meat in hospitality.

Lambs on the menu in my honor.

I'm vegetarian, so I hope I don't cause offense.

Oh, thank you, thank you.

Thank you.

That's so sweet.

So they've got that I'm vegetarian.

So they brought me a special basket of bread that hasn't been touched by the meat.

And more dates and goat's butter to put on that.

So fantastic.

Thank you.

[ Speaks native language ] I suspect I might be the first veggie ever to eat in this particular tent.

Looks delicious.

Thank you.

[ Conversing in native language ] So this is serious lunchtime.

And they've noticed that the guys who've helped drive us on our kit here were outside.

So the hospitality has been extended to the entire crew over there as well.

The lamb's served with broth and rice.

There's this really beautiful fact about ideas that if they are kept to yourself, they're sterile and die.

But if you share them, they have wings.

And people think that right at the very, very beginning of human society, when you had enough people sitting around sharing a meal, sharing thoughts, that's when the modern mind developed.

That's basically when we became us.

So in some ways, this kind of thing of welcoming strangers across your threshold is how we should all understand the real beginning of the human story.

And it's some of these fundamental drivers of humanity that can be traced on the fabulous rock art around here.

This is ancient rock art, obviously, of a lion, and it's a Barbary lion which is now extinct.

Underneath it are ostriches, also extinct.

So it's sad because it tells us of the animals that were once here, but just look at this.

Here is a lovely 4x4 put on by the Bedouin of today.

So it's a tradition that carries on on the Hisma plateau.

These are a window into the secrets of the early inhabitants of and visitors to Arabia.

I just love the rock art of the Hisma Plateau, because it's the incarnation of our desire to share experiences and information, both with the people around us and for the future, so that we can learn from other's ideas.

It really is the start of culture as we know it.

But clues to the rich history of this region aren't just on land, they're under the water.

One of the most spectacular natural wonders of the Arabian Peninsula has to be the Red Sea.

It's an artery that connects the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean and the Pacific.

So it's a body of water that holds history right around its coast and even under those waves.

The Red Sea was a vital trading route for Arabian merchants, ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans whose ships went as far as India and East Africa.

So you had Greeks and Romans and Nabataeans and Persians and early Arabs, and then the whole Islamic world would congregate in this place to kind of trade and exchange goods and ideas.

So it's not just -- it's not just somewhere that is a hub of culture.

It's a cauldron of civilization.

New excavations on the northern coast of Saudi Arabia are revealing relics of this golden age of trade.

I'm walking across a dried out riverbed here and the excavations have only just begun, but already what they're revealing is quite remarkable because what you've got up here is one of the busiest and most important trading hubs in the ancient and medieval world.

Some archeologists are certain this was a hub of an ancient Arabian culture the Nabataeans, the once thriving port town of Leuke Kome.

Ports on the Red Sea here are marked on some medieval world maps as being the most important places on Earth.

Ancient sources write about this place and the descriptions match perfectly.

So what you've got up there on the top of that hill are mansions that belong to wealthy merchants and watchtowers.

And then down here you've got workshops and shops and warehouses.

Storing all kinds of things.

We know that cotton and teak was traded across the Red Sea from India, silk from China, and from here, camel caravans carried goods on a nine day journey to the great city of Petra and beyond.

They're finding lots of pottery here, as you'd expect, but also bronze and glass ornaments and even remnants of incense.

This port is pretty much the last safe harbor before sailing conditions on the Red Sea become unpredictable and treacherous.

This is a bit of the Red Sea where the sea gets quite difficult to navigate.

So people who would have come here would have pulled into these natural harbors and then carried on trading by land, you know?

So, if boats made up this far, they were pretty good captains and pretty good sailors.

But what about those ships that never arrived with their precious cargo?

To explore the lost treasures of the Red sea.

I'm joining marine conservation scientist Ameer Ewida and underwater cameraman Sean Regary.

I'm right up on the north side of the Red sea, and it's this bit of the coastline, it's been very, very rare to get access to it, even though it's so rich in history.

So it's a kind of first time for me, but it's a first time for a lot of people to get the chance to be here.

Amazing.

It's amazing.

Okay, so why the Red Sea?

Well, possibly thanks to seasonal blooms of orange red algae, or an ancient mapping system, or because of those amazing red sands and mountains inland.

It's certainly a place packed with stories I've heard about these mysterious dugongs, but we think that's probably where the mermaid myth derived from, because they're kind of human sized.

-That's right, and the ones that you see are very unique.

And, of course, they're highly vulnerable to extinction.

-Someone's described this place to me as being one of the seven wonders of the underwater world.

You know, does it can it claim that title?

-Yeah, absolutely.

The Red Sea and the coral reefs are some of the most biodiverse in the world.

And because the Red Sea closed at one point, the species in the Red Sea became trapped, and then they started differentiating and becoming different species only found in the Red Sea.

The corals in the Red Sea might be some of the most resilient pools in the world, so this part could be one of the few places that actually survived the climate change crisis.

And if that happens, it'll be very important for these species to keep circling, because then they can propagate outside the Red Sea when the time comes.

-That is remarkable, because I know that some of the coral here itself is 7,000 years old.

So the coral has witnessed history.

It's seen these passage of humans.

So how amazing if the coral here can both be a witness to the past and potentially a witness to the future.

Ameer's is taking me to waters by a 16th century fort built in the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent when the Turkish Ottoman Empire ruled here.

They might yield some interesting underwater treasures.

Ameer, why have we chosen this spot, particularly?

-The area that we're really interested in is the area in front of the castle.

That's like the lagoon, and that's where most of the boats would have moored and either drop things or, you know, broken pottery chucked over.

And so the majority of the artifacts we think are in this area.

-Great.

So will you come up if you find something?

I'll just be above you.

-Absolutely.

I'll scream at the top of my voice.

-[ Laughs ] I'll be down.

This is a real opportunity because people haven't been allowed to dive and film here before.

It's only recently that this part of the Red Sea is opening up for archeological excavation.

So the guys are down here for about, oh, about an hour and they've just found a selection of stuff.

So it's definitely historic.

There's definitely pottery.

It looks like there's something maybe like a little pipe or something.

Oh, my gosh.

Oh, my gosh.

-So, have a look at this.

There's a piece of broken pottery, obviously.

-It's a good size, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-Hello.

[ Chuckles ] Excuse me.

Look at this.

-[ Laughs ] -That is a serious bit of amphora.

That's definitely -- that won't be for liquid.

That'll be for, like, flour, maybe.

-Yeah, exactly.

Food.

-[Indistinct] or something.

-Have a look at this.

This is the pattern.

I think that -- You see the pattern here?

-Yeah.

-That's quite important to tell what era it's from.

-Yeah.

-We found this also.

Remarkably like maybe a pipe or maybe a oil lantern, right?

-Well, that is very cool.

-This whole place is just full of this stuff.

-You leave things where you find them, basically, don't you?

-Absolutely.

-Hi -[ Speaks in native language ] -He's actually got a stingray.

My God, it's huge.

You're going to let it go?

Okay.

Good luck.

Diving here is a journey through time, and these pottery fragments are a tiny fraction of what's been lost on the Red Sea's bed.

Ameer and his team are painstakingly piecing together the stories behind their finds.

-Have a look at this.

As you can see, just littered with amphoras.

-So just absolutely -- But look at that.

Oh, that's a huge one.

-Huge.

And from the patterns we think that they are from the Roman era, and we think that there's a shipwreck in that area.

You can just see the outline of what looks like a shipwreck.

-Yes.

-I mean, that's going to be 2,000 years old.

Whatever it is, there's a massive story to tell there.

-Absolutely.

-The Red Sea is a treasure because it's inspired so many myths and legends.

It's rich with natural beauty, and it's somewhere where you can tell the story of the world from the bottom of the sea.

Next, I explore one of the most mysterious civilizations of the ancient world.

A long lost culture.

The Nabataeans thrived in ancient Arabia, an area that spanned what's now Saudi Arabia and southern Jordan.

The Nabataeans were an enigmatic people who started off life as goats and sheep herders and ended up controlling a vast kingdom.

At their height between the fourth century BCE and the second century CE, they ruled northern Arabia and the southern Levant with their capital Petra, in what's now Jordan.

This is a treasure that isn't on the hills.

It's within them.

It's a city of the dead.

Monumental in size, these tombs showcase the Nabataean peoples extraordinary ability to transform rocky landscapes into architectural marvels.

Just in this one valley alone, you've got 16 tombs.

So the whole of Nabataean society is here.

The humble ones are over there.

This is where the kind of middle class, middle ranking people would be buried.

And then, as you might expect, the posh ones are right at the top.

Tombs were considered the dead's eternal home.

Often at the entrance and edges of Nabatean settlements, they signified that the dead maintained their presence amongst the living.

Okay, so the first thing to say is that obviously this is not a burial place for a single person.

It's more like a kind of family vault.

And we often find so many bones in places like this that we think that one generation after another were probably piled up on top of each other.

There's been one recent discovery very close to here, of a body wrapped in strips of linen and leather and decorated just with a garland of dates around the body's neck.

The Nabataeans are a mysterious culture, partly because they never really wrote about themselves.

So we have to rely on the accounts of others of Greeks and Romans, for instance.

So we have to jigsaw puzzle together their story and tombs like this are brilliant bits of evidence.

Mourners would regularly visit the deceased to celebrate them and leave gifts to take to the afterlife.

How people choose to bury their dead tells you a lot about them.

And for the Nabataeans, all of this was definitely a family affair.

And one of the reasons we know this is because there are these lovely benches that they put outside the tombs.

So you just come and sit here and kind of commune with your loved ones.

Architectural details carved onto the rock are a clue to the multicultural world of the Nabataeans.

Now this is really interesting.

So I am right in the middle of the Arabian Desert, but have a look at these three shapes.

So they're called triglyphs, and you'd normally find them hanging underneath the pediment of a Greek temple.

And how about this decoration?

I mean, hello.

This is a perfect Greco Roman column.

And things like this just tell us that the Nabataeans were really deeply involved in cultures and civilizations that used to pass through this peninsula.

The Nabataeans worshiped deities associated with the earth, light and darkness.

One of the things you might expect to see here are images of gods and goddesses.

But the thing is, the Nabataeans worshiped their deities in abstract form with things like faceless square blocks of stone.

And one of their premier gods was Dushara, the god of the sun, who looked after daytime and was also the god who protected the dead in their tombs.

The Nabataeans didn't just create sophisticated tombs for the dead, they built towns that rivaled contemporary Greek and Roman cities, minted their own coins, developed a written script that would form the basis of Arabic, and boasted a strong military.

All thanks to their lucrative camel caravan trade in spice, incense and other luxuries.

I know if you're in the desert, you expect to see camels, but there's a very particular reason why these ones are here.

Not just for hundreds of years but for millennia, this has been where camel caravans have brought gems and luxury spices and goods from what's now Yemen and Oman, and even as far afield as India, through Arabia and out to the Mediterranean.

And they're still crossing the deserts today.

The Nabataeans not only traded goods, but also levied taxes on other merchants who passed through their lands, ensuring their coffers were well stocked.

Some of the most precious cargo of these camel caravans was frankincense and myrrh, which would take about 54 days to get from southern Arabia in what's now Yemen, right up to the northern Egyptian coast, to Alexandria.

This was used in all kinds of ways.

It was used in religious ritual.

It was used in funerals.

Incense has medicinal qualities as well.

You can rub it on wounds, and it became worth its weight in gold.

And as a result of that, the men who transported it became fabulously wealthy, too.

The camel was the backbone of the Nabataean merchant enterprise.

I'm being pointed out which of the plants and which smelt that you can eat and which smell good.

This is really good.

This one again?

Okay.

Oh, it's fantastic.

That is beautiful.

-[ Speaks in native language ] -I don't know what... -[ Speaks in native language ] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Is it?

Okay.

Maybe later we can eat some.

Great.

[ Laughs ] Oh, it's really lovely.

That smells like, um, tarragon or something.

Fantastic.

We'll have this later.

I'm told these herbs are great for coughs and bad chests.

In Arabic poetry camels are called the ships of the desert, but the Bedouin call them gifts of God.

And you can see why because they give everything.

They give milk, they use their skins as water containers, they make their tents out of their wool.

And, you know, of course, they can transport huge amounts of equipment across the desert over great distances.

I've got to say, they do keep on offering to give me a lift and go up on one.

But, you know, I sort of feel I don't need to add to the burden of any of these particular camels, and it's very calming.

It's really lovely just walking at this pace and traveling with them.

Camels carried some of the most coveted treasures in the world.

There's a brilliant story about Alexander the Great.

So Alexander the Great, when he was an impetuous young teenager, was throwing frankincense onto an altar to worship the gods.

And his tutor said, when you... Oh, thank you.

[ Speaks native language ] When you own the land that produces incense, then you can be so liberal.

Alexander remembered this and went on to conquer Gaza, which had one of the main harbors that imported frankincense.

And he sent back 500 talents.

That's about 14 tons of frankincense to his old tutor and said, "Now sprinkle this liberally on the altars.

You and I can afford it."

The Nabatean civilization flourished also because of its mastery of the desert.

The Nabataeans worked out sophisticated ways of storing water supplies in secret underground cisterns.

They even invented a kind of waterproof cement, which meant that in the harsh environment like this they could have control over life and death.

And just as their expertise with camel caravans catalyzed the incense trade, the Nabataeans were able to monetize their knowledge of water.

The Nabataeans didn't just develop engineering to store water, they sold it.

So this is the Magna Oasis and it stretches down to the Red Sea.

I'm standing in Asia and Africa and Egypt are just 15 miles or so across the water.

And we know that for centuries, sailors would dock here to refresh their water supplies, and the Nabataeans charged them for it.

And what is really cool is just over there they've discovered a Nabataean fort that was set up to protect all that customs and all that water wealth.

It's this ingenuity, an ability to adapt, that help the Nabataeans become a real player of ancient civilization.

The Nabataean people are a treasure and a wonder for me, because they start out in life as itinerant goat herders, and they seize the opportunity of the incense trade to become the wheeler dealer entrepreneurs of this region.

And isn't it brilliant that something is sort of useless but also beautiful as incense, something that makes the experience of our lives richer and better and lovelier also generated an entire civilization that still has its descendants here today?

Next, the Nabataeans crowning achievement, a spectacular city carved into the landscape itself.

The Nabataeans became so successful they built my next treasure.

It's one of the most spectacular and enigmatic wonders of antiquity.

The beautiful rock cut city of Petra.

From the fourth century BCE, Petra was a trading center for the ancient Nabataean civilization, flourishing until the third century CE.

Archeologists have been unearthing wonders here for over 100 years, and the site still yields treasure.

Petra was built in the north of ancient Arabia, what's now Jordan.

It's always exciting visiting the sites of antiquity.

But this is just beyond, isn't it?

This is a natural geological fault known as the Siq, and this was the ancient entrance to the hidden city.

This canyon would once have been teeming with camel caravans and merchants bringing cloth from Syria, spice from India, frankincense and myrrh from southern Arabia.

This was a practical entrance point to the city and it was very ceremonial, but it also had a kind of spiritual aspect.

So all along here you'll see these niches that held images of the Nabataean gods.

So this was actually a sacred way.

Whether in its heyday, or, for the modern visitor, the reveal at the end of this winding path has never failed to impress.

This is the most famous building in the whole of Petra, and it is impossible not to marvel at it.

The Treasury.

Engineering skills that defy belief enabled the Nabataeans to build into the rock and to carve jaw dropping detail.

This is unbelievably exciting.

So I've just had a call that I'm allowed access into the Treasury itself.

Um.

This is really rare, I've got to say.

And although I've been here lots of times before, I've never been allowed in.

So you've got to forgive me because... my heart's actually beating quite fast to get this opportunity.

Oh, my goodness.

Oh, that's so beautiful.

That's amazing.

Just listen.

Can you hear the echo in here?

That is super cool.

Named the Treasury because it was believed to hide gold and jewels, this is, in fact, a mausoleum.

And then another unexpected delight.

I'm on the verge of being granted a rare glimpse underground.

What we're doing is just checking to see whether we can open up the grill, to have a look at the tombs that were discovered under here.

I think he's going to open it.

It's happening, it's happening.

These burials were only discovered in 2003 and are hardly ever opened.

This is just incredible.

I had never, ever thought in my life I would get this close.

So these are the burials of the great kings and queens and the most powerful women and men here at Petra.

And when the bodies were discovered, so there were 11 bodies in here, the frankincense that had been burnt on the altar to help their journey into the world of death was still there.

Oh, thank you for letting me.

This is unbelievable.

This is just so beautiful.

The angles of the carving here seem planned to catch the sun's moving rays in a kind of natural light show.

I've made it up here to give you a Nabataean eye view of the treasury, and it is just extraordinary, isn't it?

These engineers are making that just with pickaxes and chisels, and we know they started at the top and worked their way down.

It's not completely clear what method they used.

It might have been ropes with a kind of pulley system or scaffolding or ledges.

But whatever their method, they only had one chance to get that right.

By the first century CE, a whole rock cut city of tombs, theaters, temples, council chambers, homes was chiseled out of the sandstone.

The fame of the Nabataeans and their bustling, wealthy metropolis reached as far as China.

The Nabataeans clearly delighted in their internationalism.

The architecture here is a living example that when you trade across borders, you get a really healthy cross-fertilization of cultures and influences.

So over there you've got something which is brilliantly Arabian.

It's a Nabatean capital.

These are much more Hellenistic, so they show Greek influence.

And then next door you have the ideal Assyrian stairway to heaven.

So this city is cosmopolitan in the true sense of the word.

It's a city of the world.

But perhaps the Nabataeans greatest achievement was furnishing the city with an incredibly sophisticated water supply.

The Nabataeans super smart control of water has its ultimate expression here at Petra.

So they channel in drinking water from a spring that's over four miles away.

There are systems in all of those hills, and we think that almost every home had its own water tank.

But it wasn't just practical.

There were also ornamental gardens here, and where I'm walking now, although I know it's pretty hard to believe, but this was once a kind of sacred pool.

So really, what they're doing is creating a fever dream version of those desert oasis right in the heart of the city.

By the way, we shouldn't really be calling this place Petra at all.

Petra is the name the Greeks gave it, and it's an ancient Greek word that means rock or stone.

The Nabataeans themselves called this Raqmu.

And we should never forget the lifeblood of this place were the people who called Raqmu home.

Real people with real hopes, beliefs and fears.

Now it could be so easy to be dazzled by all this beauty and amazing architecture, and forget that this place wasn't actually built as one of the wonders of the world.

This was people's home, and at its height, there were around 30,000 women and men who lived here.

You'd have found a lot of them right here because this was Petra's ancient high street.

Papyrus scrolls, some only recently discovered, document legal cases often heard in this very courtroom.

A fantastic window onto everyday life.

There are some really tragic records.

There's this particular one that involves a woman called Babatha, and Babatha's husband dies unexpectedly and her child is taken into care and Babatha petitions desperately to get him back.

That doesn't work.

The child is looked after by guardians, but Babatha will not give up.

And now she says, at least give him enough money so that he can live a good life.

And we have 30 years worth of Babatha's records.

So it is an extraordinary insight into the life of a woman, and these records just tell us that day in, day out here.

There were hundreds of human dramas being played out.

The Nabataeans were eventually subjugated by the Romans, and with the rise of new trading passages, Petra began to decline.

By the sixth century, this once great civilization had fallen.

Petra is a treasure because it is astounding, and because it's a reminder that the very strongest civilizations take their influences from all over in a kind of melting pot of cultures.

But more than that, as well as this place having some of the most staggering architecture and monuments ever created in history, there's also evidence here of ordinary everyday lives.

So the wonders here are both epic and very human.

[ Speaks in native language ] Oh, thank you.

Thank you.

[ Speaks in native language ] How fantastic.

That -- that smells great.

Ancient Arabia was an extraordinary place and an extraordinary time.

The treasures here speak of thousands of years of experimentation and communication, of struggles to survive and struggles to secure the most luxurious objects known to mankind, of individual journeys that shaped the direction of history.