Jordan Guide
Petra and around
The Monastery
The Monastery facade is so big that it seems like an optical illusion – the doorway alone is taller than a house. At first glance, the facade looks much like the Treasury's, but it's much less ornate; indeed, there's virtually no decoration at all. The name "Monastery" is again a misnomer, probably suggested by some crosses scratched inside; this was almost certainly a temple, possibly dedicated to the Nabatean king Obodas I, who reigned in the first century BC and was posthumously deified. Inside is a single chamber, with the same configuration of double staircases leading up to a cultic niche as in the Qasr al-Bint and the Temple of the Winged Lions. The flat plaza in front of the monument isn't natural: it was levelled deliberately, probably to contain the huge crowds that gathered here for religious ceremonies. You can pick out traces of a wall and colonnade in the ground to the south of the plaza, near where you entered. The opposite side (the left flank of the monument as you face it) has a scramble-path which can take you up to the urn on the top of the facade, which is no less than 10m high. Leaping around on the urn is a test of mettle for the local goat-footed kids, and some even shimmy to the very top; follow them with your life in your hands.
Whether you want to ride a donkey to the summit or not (prices are very negotiable), you'll most likely have to beat off the hordes of kids riding alongside offering them as "Air-condition taxi?" Bear in mind that the archeological authorities would prefer that you walked: all those little hooves are seriously degrading the Nabatean-carved sandstone steps on the route up. Either way, by far the best time to attempt the climb is in the afternoon; not only is the way up mostly in shadow by then, but the sun has moved around enough to hit the facade on the summit full-on.