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. This Oxbow reprint makes it available once more at an affordable price.

Discovery, recording and dating of the facades at Petra; The Nabatean tombs at Medain Saleh: A re-examination; The chronology of the principal monuments at Petra; The architectural remains from Alexandria and their chronology; The architecture of Alexandria and its reflection in the architecture at Petra and in second style Pompeian wall-painting; The city of Petra; The tombs of Petra; Summary and Conclusions; Catalogue of the principal monuments at Petra.