It is so amazing that they carved an arena out of solid rock. An arena in the midst of a burial place? It was probably more for funeral services than for entertainment. Author, Jane Taylor writes..."The zeal of the Nabataeans in chiselling their vast theatre out of the solid rock is a source of wonder. To trace a semicircle on level ground is no great matter, to do so on a convoluted rock-face, using no sophisticated tools is decidedly more taxing." While it looked Roman, it was decided this was done before the Roman invasion and that this is pure Nabataean. It was built in the area that overlooked most of the important tombs, near the 'streets of Facades'. In March 1991 the whole of most of Petra including the arena was flooded. Excavation has dammed most of the flow of the flow of water. The arena became a swimming pool. This would never have happened in Nabataean times, they had a sophisticated water channel and cistern system in place.
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