Petra Monastery

The Monastery is known in Arabic as Al-Deir. Despite its modern name, it was likely built as a royal tomb or religious temple, not a functioning Christian monastery.

Unlike the famous Treasury, which is near the park entrance, the Monastery requires a rigorous hike up roughly 800 rock-cut stairs carved into the cliffside. The ascent takes most visitors about 45 minutes to an hour.

The Monastery is one of the largest monuments in Petra, standing at about 47 meters (154 feet) high and 48 meters wide. Its sheer scale makes it significantly larger than the Treasury.

It was carved directly into the sandstone rock face by the Nabataeans in the mid-first century CE, around 40-70 AD. The Nabataeans were an ancient Arab civilization renowned for their advanced rock-cut architecture and water management.