Petra Tour: Ad Deir (Monastery)
The monumental rock façade in a magnificent mountain landscape is one of Petra's highlights. On the plateau there are further rock structures worth seeing, such as chambers, cult niches, sacrificial places, cisterns.
For an optimal view of our website, please rotate your tablet horizontally.
The monumental rock building of Ad Deir is 47 m wide and 48 m high. In the carving out of the upper storey with the broken (open) pediment, in the middle of which stands a Tholos (circular structure) with a conic roof, Nabataean capital and urn, the builders followed the model of the Khazneh (Treasury), but without its elegance and richness of detail. This façade - like most buildings in Petra - was probably also covered with a light stucco layer, which protected the porous sandstone, and was painted in several colours.
In the two lower and the three upper niches, there were probably cultic statues.
The accumulation of sand and other eroded material has made the forecourt become much higher. Therefore, the column stumps of the colonnades on the right side of the courtyard are no longer visible. About 100 years ago the threshold was still 2 m above the ground level in front of the façade (according to Gustaf Dalman, p. 271).
© Photos, text: Haupt & Binder
The monumental rock façade in a magnificent mountain landscape is one of Petra's highlights. On the plateau there are further rock structures worth seeing, such as chambers, cult niches, sacrificial places, cisterns.
A betyl (Semitic: bait-el = house of God; Greek: baitylos) is an aniconical God symbol, usually in the form of a vertical rectangular plate or stele. It can also be a negative form in a niche. Often there are several betyls in a niche next to each other, on top of each other or grouped together. "The betyl is not a representation of the God, neither an image of the God, nor an idol. As a medium of the presence of the God, however, it can also experience cultic veneration. This in turn means that in the act of worship, one could offer sacrifices and gifts to the betyl." (R. Wenning, 2007. Transl. UiU)