Time Scanners: Petra

In the desert of Southern Jordan lies Petra, an ancient city that was lost to the West for more than 1,000 years. When Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt rediscovered Petra in 1812, he found an archaeological and architectural wonderland. Now, structural engineer Steve Burrows leads his team of experts to the Middle East to scan the ancient city. Using cutting-edge 3D laser-scanning technology, Steve and the team are able to visualize the city like never before, allowing them to answer long-standing questions about this archaeological masterpiece. How did Nabatean stonemasons carve Petra's largest building, the Monastery, into a mountainside? Was Petra's city center-the "Southern Terrace" -all built at the same time, as part of a single, vast civil engineering project? And what new secrets lie hidden underneath the Monastery's huge courtyard? To find the answers, the team must battle the sheer scale of Petra—and its many tourists—as they use their high-tech scanning equipment to build 3D digital models across the city.