Elephant capitals
Asian elephant heads once crowned its columns.
Bernard Gagnon — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Diego Delso — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Diego Delso — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Dennis G. Jarvis — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Davide Mauro — CC BY-SA 4.0
The largest building in Petra, a Nabataean complex of 7,560 square metres rising in terraces from the south side of the Colonnaded Street. A monumental entrance and stairway lead up to a lower court, and twin stairways climb on to an upper terrace and the temple itself, about 42 metres long and 35 wide. Work began in the 1st century BC, and in the 1st century AD a small theatre for about 600 people was built into the heart of the temple. Since the theatre was found in 1997, scholars have been divided over whether the building was a temple, a council hall or both; no deity has been identified. An earthquake in 363 brought part of it down and another in 551 nearly all the rest. The lower court is paved with white hexagonal stones and was lined on both sides by triple colonnades whose capitals bore the carved heads of Asian elephants; some of the columns have been partly re-erected. Higher up stand the stumps of the temple's four porch columns, once about 15 metres tall, and behind them the five surviving stone rows of the theatre. On the Main Trail the temple comes towards the end of the 1 km stretch from the Theatre to Qasr al-Bint, which stands just over 200 metres beyond it. At the temple's foot runs the Colonnaded Street, straightened and paved by the Romans over an older Nabataean road, where nine columns stand again.
Asian elephant heads once crowned its columns.
Built for about 600 at the temple's heart.
Petra's main street at its foot.
South side of the Colonnaded Street, central Petra
PetraThe Nabataean capital carved into rose sandstone in southern Jordan, and one of 3 minutes walk4.9
Qasr al-Bint (Petra)Petra's main temple, and one of the few stone-built monuments left standing in a3 minutes walk
Petra TheatrePetra's great theatre, also called the Nabataean Theatre, was carved into the sa8 minutes walk
Street of Facades (Petra)The Street of Facades is the row of Nabataean tombs cut into the cliffs beyond t8 minutes walk
Royal Tombs of PetraA row of huge façades carved into the flank of Jabal al-Khubtha, looking over th8 minutes walk4.7Walter Bachmann named it a great temple in his 1921 revision of the Petra city plan, when only scattered carved stones lay on the site, and the name stuck. Brown University, led by Martha Sharp Joukowsky, excavated it from 1993 to 2006.
Golf carts run between the Theatre and Qasr al-Bint, passing the temple, for 10 JD one way or 15 JD return. Walkers reach it near the end of the Main Trail, which runs 3.9 km from the visitor centre to Qasr al-Bint and takes an hour and a half to an hour and three quarters without stops.