Palace Tomb
About
The largest rock-cut facade in Petra spans 49 meters wide and 46 meters tall, carved into the eastern cliff toward the end of the 1st century CE. Its top story breaks with every other tomb in the city by extending beyond the cliff face as freestanding built masonry rather than carved rock. Four wide entrances on the ground floor lead into separate burial chambers behind the towering facade. Its scale and unusual construction mark it as one of Petra's grandest Nabataean monuments.
What happened here
Roman burial is a family matter conducted in public. The dead are carried out of town, cremated or laid in the ground, and mourned with formal noise; the funeral of anyone important is a procession with masks of the ancestors carried by hired men. The tomb that follows is designed to be read by strangers on the road: name, age, offices, sometimes a trade shown in relief, often a line addressed directly to the passer-by. Ordinary people appear here as they nowhere else — a baker with his ovens carved on the front, a freedman naming the woman he could finally marry, a child's age given in days. Anniversaries bring the family back with food and wine.
Sources
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →