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Al-Khazneh
About
A towering tomb facade cut into rose sandstone at the entrance to Petra, capital of the Nabataean kings. Its columned front rises some 40 meters, blending Hellenistic style with Nabataean tradition, carved for royalty rather than built from blocks. Rome annexed the Nabataean kingdom only eleven years before 117 CE, folding this tomb and its caravan city into the new province of Arabia. Legend later credited the stone urn on its facade with hidden treasure, giving the monument its modern name.
What happened here
The tomb is built where the traffic is: on the road out of town, facing the carriageway, close enough to read at walking pace. That is the design brief. Inside there may be a single chamber for one family or niches for dozens, with cremation urns or, increasingly, bodies laid out. Outside there is a portrait, an inscription giving the dead their offices and their years, and often a bench, because visitors come back. The family returns on the anniversary and at the February festival of the dead, brings wine and food, and eats a meal at the graveside. Endowments are left to keep it up and lawsuits follow when they are not honoured. A grand tomb is the last public building a family gets to commission.
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 →