This is an enormous and impressive book not only full of facts, but also solving mysteries. It provides a detailed and lavishly illustrated catalogue of the main monuments of Petra. Then, in seeking the origins of Petra's particular architecture and its close relations with the architectural scenes on the walls of Pompeii, Judith McKenzie examines the rock cut tombs of Medain Saleh (Saudi Arabia) and then the little known architectural remains of Ptolemaic Alexandria. Here lies her solution, for the earliest of the Petra-style baroque architecture is in Alexandria Ä from where it spread east to Petra and west to Pompeii and thus elsewhere in the Roman World. It is an impressive study with a significant and satisfying conclusion. The book has been reprinted to celebrate an exhibition on Petra which will be touring North America from late 2003 onwards.
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