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History
Evidence suggests that settlements had begun in and around Petra
in the eighteenth dynasty of Egypt (1550-1292
BC). It is listed in Egyptian campaign accounts and the Amarna
letters as Pel, Sela or Seir. Though the city was founded relatively late,
a sanctuary existed there since very ancient times. Stations 19 through 26 of
the stations list of Exodus
are places associated with Petra.[8] This part
of the country was Biblically
assigned to the Horites,
the predecessors of the Edomites.[9] The habits
of the original natives may have influenced the Nabataean custom of burying the
dead and offering worship in half-excavated caves. Although Petra is usually identified with Sela
which means a rock, the Biblical references[10] refer to
it as "the cleft in the rock", referring to its entrance. The second
book of Kings xiv. 7 seems to be more specific. In the
parallel passage, however, Sela is understood to mean simply "the
rock" (2 Chronicles xxv. 12, see LXX).