Excavation
Away from the frescoed villas, archaeologists are mapping the small plots where ordinary households grew food.
Heritage desk · Issue 05
The monastery at Petra was carved to be seen before it was entered
Walking the siq, you meet the facade at the exact moment the canyon opens, and that timing was designed.
Top stories
Issue 05
Heritage
The best known view of the complex depends on a pool of water that has been managed for centuries.
Excavation
Photographs from the early twentieth century show a monument emerging from sand in stages, not at once.
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Heritage
Archaeology
Photo essay
Sites are not sets
These places are open to visitors and closed to tripods. The photographs were made in the hours when the gates are shut and the light is doing something useful, with permission and an escort.
Centaur mosaic, a Roman floor restored from thousands of tesserae.
Editor's note
“A ruin is a building that has been through something. The reporting only works if we describe the something, not just the shape it left behind.”
Layla Haddad · Editor, Strata
The Strata dispatch
One story, one photograph, and one thing worth knowing. Sent on Thursdays.
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