2006.05.20_Petra 3 - Royal Tombs, Theatre and Monastery

Photos: Royal Tombs (1+2), Theatre, Steps to Monastery, Monastery

After the Treasury, we turned right and walked to the ancient civic centre and the magnificent theatre built against the red hillside of El Nejr, on which many royal tombs can be seen. We stopped at the theatre for a while, and decided to hike up to the second most iconic building in Petra, the Monastery (El Deir). The Monastery was an important ceremonial temple in Nabatean times. It took us roughly an hour to reach the Monastery from the theatre. Similar to the Treasury, the Monastery is a rock-cut building carved out from the cliff. There is a decent sized courtyard in front, probably for religious ceremonies. Many believe that the building was used as a church during Byzantine era, and that is where the name “Monastery” was derived from. We sat down at an open teashop across the courtyard. From our seats we had a perfect front elevation view of the Monastery under the early afternoon sun. We decided to take an hour of rest at the teashop. I made a sketch of the building while we rested.