How ‘Indiana Jones’ unearthed the mystical beauty of Petra, Jordan
Of all the globe-trotting adventurers in cinematic history, it is the Indiana Jones franchise that is known for its exploration, both of built-up urban cities and ancient secret landmarks. Over the course of four spectacular films of admittedly varying quality, director Steven Spielberg and franchise star Harrison Ford have travelled from the bustling streets of Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro in Shanghai to the dazzling Iguazu Falls of Argentina.
Whilst these locations are undoubtedly a joy to explore, there is arguably no better location in the series than Al Khazneh in Petra, Jordan, an enormous structure built into the side of a stone face that provides a remarkable lens into the past. Appearing during the climax of the 1989 movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the location makes for an impressive backdrop to the mystery and chaos of the film’s final moments.
Well known for being ‘the place at the end of Indiana Jones’, Petra has a far richer history than being the mere location for Spielberg’s blockbuster. Believed to date back to 9000 BC, the city of Petra was established as the capital of the Nabataean Kingdom around the 4th century BC. Petra became the subject of many attacks, becoming a major trading hub and a rich city in the process, but the mountainous region made it an impenetrable fortress.
Alas, every city has its weakness. Eventually, Petra did fall under the control of the Romans, with much of the population falling as of the takeover and a catastrophic earthquake. Indeed, by the early Islamic era, the city had been almost totally abandoned, that was until a Swiss traveller by the name of Johann Ludwig Burckhardt re-discovered Petra at the start of the 19th century.
Accessible now through a narrow gorge called the Siq, the ancient city was declared one of the New 7 Wonders of the World, and quickly became the most visited spot in Jordan. The site’s popularity was undoubtedly boosted in 1989 with the help of Steven Spielberg. However, the release of his third Indiana Jones film, which prominently featured the temple of Al Khazneh, helped to boost tourism significantly.
Though it was also featured in Arabian Nights, Passion in the Desert, The Mummy Returns, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Samsara, it was the grand mysticism in which it was showcased in The Last Crusade which made it such a desirable spot to explore. Before the release of the film at the end of the 1980s, only a few thousand tourists visited the site per year, but now the site is filled with almost a million annually.
There’s no doubt that the decision of Spielberg and his location scouting team picked the perfect site for the film’s climax, with the giant, intricately carved sandstone temple being the perfect place to house ‘the Holy Grail’, the object of Indiana Jones’ desire. The 1989 film has been so influential that several shops around the area have played up to the connection, and in 2012, the satirical website The Pan-Arabia Enquirer even joked that the tourist board had officially renamed Petra ‘That Place from Indiana Jones‘.
In a modern cinema industry that so heavily relies on CGI and fantastical locations, classic Hollywood movies, such as Spielberg’s classic, demonstrated that spectacular sites could be found on earth, using such landmarks to authenticate its ancient tale of adventure with a drizzle of sci-fi. With the release of the fifth movie in the globe-trotting adventure series due to come out in 2023, let’s hope the whip-bearing archaeologist can continue to foster a healthy relationship with global tourism.
Though Petra will always hold an innate ethereal beauty, Indiana Jones certainly helped to construct the mythos of its existence.