Pottery recovered from the site dates to about 150BC, and the platform’s design has no parallels to any other structure in the ancient city, the archaeologists say in the paper.
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Discoverers think the structure had a ceremonial and public function, and it would make the monument the second largest display area after the Monastery in the city. In 2007, Petra was named one of the New Seven Wonders of the World, and as one of the 28 Places To See Before You Die by Smithsonian magazine.
Researchers had noted portions of the structure before, but mostly ignored them as simply more stone walls – a ubiquitous among the ruins of Petra. The smaller platform likely had a row of sandstone drum columns, and has a tiny structure on it measuring about 27 square feet – but the structure’s condition won’t be known until it’s excavated.
More than half a million tourists each year visit Petra, a city partly carved into the red, pink and white cliff faces which has been inhabited since prehistoric times.
The site is said to be hiding in plain sight probably because it lay buried under the sands of Petra south of the center of the ancient city.
Most of Petra’s monuments were built during the second century A.C. It is believed this newly found structure belongs to the first century B.C.
The archaeologists used satellite imagery to find the platform, which is 184 feet by 161 feet.
“Given the discoveries at Petra, WV-1 and WV-2 satellite imagery analysis has much to offer other archaeological projects, especially at well-known sites with similar environmental conditions, where new (and surprising) discoveries continue to make headlines”, the study concludes.
“I’m sure that over the course of two centuries of research [in Petra], someone had to know [this site] was there, but it’s never been systematically studied or written up”, he told National Geographic.
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Tuttle told National Geographic that someone must have stumbled upon the platform before. “But it’s certainly legitimate to call this a discovery”. One such façade was used in the filming of “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”, as the exterior of the Temple of the Crescent Moon, the fictional resting place of the Holy Grail.
