Massive New Monument Found in Petra

An overhead image of the monument photographed from a drone, and a
detail overlay of the surface features (photograph by I. LaBianca (Left)
  and Photograph by I. LaBianca; graphics by J. Blanzy (Right)

Archeologists have failed to discover an important site near Petra in Jordan (Kristin Romey, 'Massive New Monument Found in Petra' National Geographic June 8, 2016; BBC  Petra, Jordan: Huge monument found 'hiding in plain sight' 10 June 2016 ).

An enormous monument has been hiding in plain sight at the World Heritage site of Petra, according to a study recently published in the Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research. Archaeologists Sarah Parcak, a National Geographic fellow, and Christopher Tuttle, executive director of the Council of American Overseas Research Centers, used high-resolution satellite imagery followed by aerial drone photography and ground surveys to locate and document the structure. They report that the monument is roughly as long as an Olympic-size swimming pool and twice as wide. It sits only about half a mile (800 meters) south of the center of the ancient city. The enormous platform has no known parallels to any other structure in Petra.

Position of new discovery

The caravan city of Petra, in what is today southern Jordan, served as the capital of the Arab tribe known as the Nabataeans from its likely founding in the mid-second century B.C. The site was essentially abandoned at the end of the Byzantine period in the seventh century A.D. Hundreds of thousands of tourists visit its iconic buildings, hewn from the local red sandstone, each year. More recently, the city provided the backdrop for the 1989 film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Most of the monuments that can be seen in Petra today, such as its iconic Treasury and the Monastery, were built during its second heyday, from the end of the first century B.C. to the second century A.D.

The newly revealed structure consists of a 184-by-161-foot (about 56-by-49-meter) platform that encloses a slightly smaller platform originally paved with flagstones. The east side of the interior platform had been lined with a row of columns that once crowned a monumental staircase. A small 28-by-28-foot (8.5-by-8.5-meter) building was centered north-south atop the interior platform and opened to the east, facing the staircase. This enormous open platform, topped with a relatively small building and approached by a monumental facade, has no known parallels to any other structure in Petra. It most likely had a public, ceremonial function [...] While the monument has not been excavated, the presence of surface pottery dating from the mid-second century B.C. suggests that construction of the structure began during the Nabataeans' initial public building program.

The ancient city of Petra in Jordan where the new monument has been discovered Getty