TARGET 061115 The Ancient Ruins of Petra Al Khazneh - The Treasury To take an interactive 360 degree tour, click here (Needs Quicktime, and takes a long time to load)

Al Khazneh (The Treasury) is one of the most elaborate buildings in the ancient city of Petra in Jordan. The building is carved out of sandstone and is a popular tourist attraction. It is called the treasury because for a long time, bedouins who lived in that area believed that the urn on top of the building contained valuable treasures. Factually speaking however, it appears that the building isn't actually a treasury, but a temple of some kind. The entrance to the treasury is through a long, dark, rock passage called al-Siq (meaning the shaft).

Petra Petra is an archaeological site in Jordan, lying in a basin among the mountains which form the eastern flank of Wadi Araba, the great valley running from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba. It is famous for having many stone structures carved into the rock.

Main Street

As many as 30,000 people may have lived in Petra during the 1st century A.D. It is a misconception that Petra was a city only for the dead. A large earthquake in 363 A.D. destroyed at least half of the city. Petra never recovered from this destruction.

The Monastery

The Monastery is the largest tomb façade in Petra, measuring 50 m wide and 45 m high. Despite its name, it was built as a tomb monument and may have acquired its name from the crosses inscribed inside. Like the Kazneh, the structure consists of two stories topped by a magnificent urn. The architectural detail of the Kazneh is not evident in this building.

Monastery Top

Scholars debate who the designers and builders of the tombs of Petra were. They were probably the product of local workers and artisans brought in from Alexandria and Rome. The monuments are Nabatean in style, but they incorporate classical, Egyptian and Mesopotamian elements.

Feedback map Petra

Djin Blocks Obelisk Tomb Al-Siq The Treasury Street of Facades The Theater Aneisho Tomb Urn Tomb Silk Tomb Corinthian Tomb Palace Tomb Sextus Florentinus Tomb House of Dorotheos The Nymphaeum Colonnaded Street Byzantine Church Winged Lion Temple The Arched Gate Qasr Al-Bint Unfinished Tomb Al-Habees Museum Petra Archeological Museum Lion Triclinium Al-Deir urkmanian Tomb Conway Tower Moghar Annassara High Palace of Sacrifice Lion Monumen Garden Temple Complex Triclinium Renaissance Tomb Broken Pediment Tomb Roman Soldier Tomb Snake Monument Crusader Fort Information for this target was obtained from the following sites, where further feedback information can be obtained: Wikipedia Raingod.com Bibleplaces.com Our sincere thanks to Ray McClure for the research and development of this target.