The Monastery, also known as Ad Deir (Arabic for the monastery) wasn’t really a monastery; it was a temple dedicated to Nabataean king Obodas I. The structure was called the Monastery by early European explorers, who thought the mountain setting of Ad Deir, high above the city of Petra, was in keeping with that of a monastery. Several crudely etched crosses on the inner walls of the central chamber seemed to corroborate this assumption. And that was that. The Monastery had its name.

Ad Deir, the Monastery. Photo credit: Benjamin White

Mislabelling archaeological ruins is common practice. Examples are easy to come by; there’s the Nunnery at Uxmal, Mexico, which is in fact a government palace. Or there’s the Temple of the Moon at Machu Picchu, Peru, which isn’t a temple, and has nothing to do with the moon – it’s a tomb. Or, for a closer example, there’s Petra’s Al-Khazneh, the Treasury, which is actually a mausoleum.

Photo credit: Benjamin White

The hike to Ad Deir

Ad Deir is located in the mountains above Petra city; it’s an easy enough one-hour-long hike, if a touch hot in the heat of midday. There are more than 800 steps to climb along the way.

Photo credit: Benjamin White

Donkeys are available for those sightseers that are incapable, or unwilling, to hike to the top. The donkeys should be avoided if at all possible though, as their hooves chip away at the 2,000 year old, Nabataean-carved stairwells causing irreparable damage.

Photo credit: Benjamin White

Lion Triclinum

On the way to Ad Deir you’ll pass the Lion Triclinum, a small shrine with several severely eroded lion carvings guarding the door, and two medusa heads decorating the upper frieze.

Lion Triclinum. Photo credit: Benjamin White

Further along the trail you’ll find Qattar Ad Deir, a holy spring that supplies year-round flowing water.

As you climb you are treated to increasingly impressive views, first over the Petra basin, then over Wadi Araba.

Photo credit: Benjamin White

Ad Deir

Ad Deir was a temple dedicated to the Nabaeatean king Obodas I, who ruled Petra in the 1^st Century BCE. Obodas I was one of those special individuals who was deified after his death.

Photo credit: Benjamin White

Ad Deir is 50 metres wide and 45 metres high. Inside the structure is a single austere chamber with stairwells leading to the niche. The plaza in front of Ad Deir also had to be chiselled out of the bedrock, and would have held thousands of individuals during religious gatherings

And what of the crosses that grace the inner walls of Ad Deir?

Photo credit: Benjamin White

The most likely answer is that Ad Deir, at some point in history, was re-appropriated as a church, in similar circumstances to that of the Urn Tomb of Petra, Jordan.

Photo credit: Benjamin White

There is even a slim chance that Ad Deir was temporarily used as a hermitage for monks; a function which, if you were feeling generous, you might say was similar to that of a monastery. 🙂

Practical information and how to reach Ad Deir:

The Nabataean city of Petra is accessed from the new city of Wadi Musa, a 4 hour drive (250 km) from Amman, the capital of Jordan. More transport info here.

Read more on Petra in the UNESCO World Heritage listing.

More on Petra:

Al Siq: narrow, magical chasm leading to Al Khazneh

The Outer Siq, the Street of Facades, and the Royal Tombs

More on Jordan:

Jerash – best-preserved Roman city outside of Italy

Amman – capital of the Ammonites

Posts on the Middle East:

Iran:

Dakhmeh-ye Zartoshtiyun, Yazd – Zoroastrian tower of silence

Tomb of Cyrus the Great, Pasargadae

Oman:

Jibreen Castle – fortified palace of the Yaruba dynasty

Muscat – beautiful city, but don’t expect locally-grown grapes

Qatar:

Doha – city under construction

Turkey:

Pamukkale – chalk white cliffs, turquoise pools 

Istanbul – the transcontinental capital

More rock-cut architecture:

Kailasa Temple, Ellora Caves, India

Naqsh-e Rustam, Iran – unearthly cliff tombs of the Achaemenid emperors

The Salt Cathedral of Zipaquirá, Colombia

Lycian tombs, Fethiye, Turkey

The Moai Quarry archaeological site, Easter Island, Chile

Rock sculpture of Decebalus, Romania – the last king of Dacia

or visit my rock-cut architecture page.