Petra Tour: Wadi Farasa East
Coming from Jabal al-Madhbah, the tour continues through the idyllic valley. Highlights are the Garden Triclinium, the Soldier Tomb complex, with the large colourful triclinium, and the Renaissance Tomb.
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The building, with its 7.5 m wide façade, the platform to which a wide staircase leads and in which there is a deep cistern, and the two interiors, is completely hewn out of the rock. The two free-standing columns were also carved from the massive rock. They and the outer pilasters are crowned by Nabataean capitals. In the upper left corner of the architrave there is a remnant of stucco imitating ashlars.
The deep horizontal grooves above the façade and on the right-hand side wall, as well as the stumps of the columns, suggest that the platform was at least partially covered in the manner of a peristyle (colonnaded courtyard). It is possible that an entire upper floor existed. This floor was reached via a staircase to the far right of the large cistern and then via a footbridge in front of the retaining wall (see the page after next). In the photo above you can see a door way on the right above the notch.
Because of the upper floor, the peristyle, the cistern hewn into the rock and the two interiors one behind the other, S. G. Schmid sees in the building a parallel to rich Hellenistic houses in ancient Delos or Roman villas in Pompeii (IWFP, Season 2001). In a reconstruction sketch, the front of the house appears as a closed wall with a portal to be reached by the stairs.
Interiors
The first room, a kind of vestibule just behind the columns, is about 6.2 m wide and 6.8 m long. In later times, Bedouins engraved ibex, archers, dancers with swords and shields, gazelles and other animals into the walls (Dalman, S. 196).
The back room was formerly accessed through a door that was opened and closed repeatedly, which can be seen from the grinding marks on the floor and is interpreted as a further indication of a profane use. Three quarters of the 5.1 x 5.4 m rear chamber was worked in the most careful chiselling technique so that the walls could be covered with painted stucco. The fact that the rear part of the chamber was chiseled out using a coarser technique may be due to an extension during later use. The window was also knocked out of the left side wall in order to be able to observe the lower terrace and the valley. (IWFP, Season 2003)
Usage during the Middle Ages
When cleaning the platform of the Garden Triclinium, archaeologists uncovered medieval wall remains, some of which stood on a backfilled cistern from the Nabataean period. The structure was made of stones from the house that collapsed during the earthquake of 363 AD. Its date of origin was estimated to be between the 11th and 13th centuries. Walls between the freestanding columns and outer pilasters sealed off the interior. The entrance was through a corridor bricked onto the platform, secured by a door and a kind of guard house.
The usage of the Garden Triclinium in the Middle Ages was already established by Brünnow and von Domaszewski at the end of the 19th century when they found a tombstone there which they attributed to the crusaders. The IMFP team discovered five other gravestones with Christian symbols in 2001, but it remains open whether they were actually from crusaders or from a local Christian community. No cemetery was found in the vicinity (yet).
(Information from IWFP, Season 2003 and S. G. Schmid, Kreuzritteralltag
© Summary, translations: Universes in Universe)
© Photo, text: Haupt & Binder
Coming from Jabal al-Madhbah, the tour continues through the idyllic valley. Highlights are the Garden Triclinium, the Soldier Tomb complex, with the large colourful triclinium, and the Renaissance Tomb.
Kreuzritteralltag in Petra - Das Beispiel des Wadi Farasa
In: Die Kreuzzüge. Petra - Eine Spurensuche, pp. 45 - 59. Publication related to the exhibition of Ritterhausgesellschaft Bubikon, 2006. Idea and concept: Ueli Bellwald. In German, with contributions by Khairieh Amr, Guido Vannini, Stephan G. Schmid, Ueli Bellwald.