← Back to the map Rock-cut facade of the Tomb of Uneishu above the Street of Facades in Petra

The Tomb of Uneishu on the Street of Facades, Petra, Wikimedia Commons

Tomb of Uneishu

Sepulcrum Uneishu

TombArabia Petraea · Street of Facades, Petra, JordanBuilt 76 CE

About

An inscription found near this tomb preserves the single name Uneishu, believed to be the brother and chief minister of the Nabataean queen Shaqilath II. Its tall facade rises above the Street of Facades on the western slope of Jabal al-Khubtha, framed by two columns beneath a double cornice. Historians date the tomb to around 76 CE, built for a man who stood at the center of Nabataean royal power under King Malichus II. It had stood for over forty years by the time of Trajan's death.

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.