Early peoples relied upon the natural environment to give them shelter. Hunters made camps beneath cliffs, and families often lived and sheltered in natural caves.
- Grandest Monuments in Petra:
Ad Deir ("The Monastery") is a monumental building carved out of rock in the ancient Jordanian city of Petra. Built by the Nabataeans in the 1st century and measuring 50 meters wide by approximately 45 meters high, architecturally the Monastery is an example of the Nabatean Classical style. It is the second most visited building in Petra after Al Khazneh. The Monastery is beautifully carved, though much less decorated than the Treasury, and so huge that even the doorway is several stories tall. Its name, like most Petra structures, does not reflect reality: it was probably a Nabatean temple. Like the "Treasury," the name "Monastery" is a rather inaccurate nickname, which is probably based on its remote location and some inscribed crosses in the interior. Although it may have been later used as a church (or even a hermitage), it was probably a temple. It may have been dedicated to the deified Nabatean king Obodas I, who reigned in the 1st century BC. Petra represents the ancient world’s heritage culture. It is a beauty hidden behind layers of mountain. The ones who have seen it say it is a treasure beyond comparison. It is now said to be one of the seventh wonder of the world and it belongs to the UNESCO world heritage site. The entire red rose city of Petra has such a charismatic appeal that it attracts anyone & everyone who enters the city, taking them to a different world of divine beauty and mystery. Petra mainly is admired because of its picture perfect architecture, its complex structure, quality and the unmentionable mere size.
Petra is said to have its origin before 106 AD; its culture is said to have been flourished in almost 400 years old. The one’s who visited it say that it is a site that can never be forgotten. The city of Petra takes its name, which is the Greek word for “rock”, from the fact that it is most notable for its buildings and tombs that are carved directly into the red sandstone that serves as the city’s natural protection from invaders. Its popularity with tourists may also have a connection to the city’s Biblical significance. It is here where King Aretas called for the arrest of the Apostle Paul at the time of his conversion.
- The Caves Of The 1,000 Buddha's:
About 10 million people may have lived in the Buddhist cave temples at Yun-Kang, in Shanxi province, China, during the Wei dynasty(A.D 386 - 532). In the Sui dynasty (A.D. 581 - 618), 500 more vabes at Dunhuang, farther west, were filled with paintings and carvings of the Buddha, giving the, the name" The Caves of the 1000 Buddhas". The caves, now empty, were used by the monks and missionaries. The caves contain some of the finest examples of Buddhist art spanning a period of 1,000 years. The first caves were dug out in 366 CE as places of Buddhist meditation and worship.The Mogao Caves are the best known of the Chinese Buddhist grottoes and, along with Longmen Grottoes and Yungang Grottoes, are one of the three famous ancient Buddhist sculptural sites of China.
Uncovered in 1900, the Dunhuang Library, left untouched for over 1000 years, contains writings in 17 languages (some of which are now extinct) on the teachings of Buddha. The caves are the embodiment of the transition of Buddhist thought into China and East Asia. In this regard, its discovery has created an entire academic discipline of its own. In 1987, the Dunhuang Caves (also called the “Mogao Grottoes” or “Cave of 1,000 Buddhas”) was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Fourteen years later, the Taliban, using dynamite, destroyed The Buddha’s of Bamyan in Afghanistan, which had been home to some of the largest Buddha statues in the world. The act spurred the international community in action, in turn investing more time and effort to cultivate the remaining links the modern world has to the history of Buddhism in Asia.
- Cliff Palace Mesa Verde:
From about A.D. 1000 to 1300, native peoples, called Anasazi, who lived in Southwestern Colorado, U.S. built homes in holes in the walls of Canyon cliff. This parkland region is known as Mesa Verde, or Green Table. It had about 100 residents at the height of its use in the 1200's. Ancestral Puebloans also called Anasazi were native to the Four Corners region, where the U.S. states of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona neatly intersect. 150 rooms of Cliff Palace were constructed out of natural sandstone, wooden beams, and mortar. The mortar was made of soil, water, and ash. Tiny pieces of stone called chinking are also embedded in the mortar, to strengthen construction. Ancestral Puebloans entered their cliff-dwelling apartments through wooden ladders. Families lived together, and historians say that two or three people often shared a room. Many rooms were originally plastered in bright colors—usually pink, brown, red, yellow, or white. Smaller rooms near the back of the cliff were used for storing crops, such as beans, corn, and squash.
- Cave Homes Cappadocia:
People have been living in the caves at cappadocia, Turkey, for 5000 years. Homes haves have been carved out of the soft volcanic rock. Some are still in use and have entrances at a high level for security.
Beginning in the fourth century A.D., an urbanized—but underground—cultural landscape was created here.Ancient volcanic eruptions blanketed this region with thick ash, which solidified into a soft rock called tuff, tens of meters thick. Wind and water went to work on this plateau, leaving only its harder elements behind to form a fairy tale landscape of cones, pillars, pinnacles, mushrooms, and chimneys, which stretch as far as 130 feet (40 meters) into the sky.But human hands performed equally incredible works here. The rocky wonderland is honeycombed with a network of human-created caves; living quarters, places of worship, stables, and storehouses were all dug into the soft stone. In fact, tunnel complexes formed entire towns with as many as eight different stories hidden underground.
Göreme was inhabited as early as the Hittite era, 1800 to 1200 B.C. and later sat uncomfortably on the boundary between rival empires; first the Greeks and Persians and later the Byzantine Greeks and a host of rivals. This precarious political position meant that residents needed hiding places and found them by tunneling into the rock itself. The site became a religious refuge during the early days of Christianity. By the fourth century Christians fleeing Rome’s persecution had arrived in some numbers and established monastic communities here. The monks excavated extensive dwellings and monasteries and created Byzantine frescoed paintings in cave chapels beginning in the seventh century, which endure in well-preserved isolation to this day. Göreme is rich with history, but not all of Cappadocia’s troglodyte dwellings are museums. Some still serve as homes and others as hotels, which offer a truly unique hospitality experience. The primary threats to this World Heritage site come from the forces that created it in the first place. Erosion is returning some human endeavors to a more natural state, and extensive preservation efforts are meant to ensure that the wonders of Göreme survive for another millennium. With increased tourist trade, however, humans have brought modern development and damage or destruction to some of the ancient sites they once created.
