Palace Tomb

About Palace Tomb

The Palace Tomb is a Nabataean tomb in the Petra Archaeological Park. It is situated among the Royal Tombs, a line of prominent monumental facades on the east cliffs flanking the valley in which the city lies. At 49 meters wide and 46 meters tall, its rock-hewn façade is one of the largest in Petra. The tomb's name is derived from its supposed resemblance to a Roman palace design popularized by Nero's Golden House, as well as its wide and richly decorated structure... The descriptive name is based on its appearance today, rather than historical evidence for its use by royalty or occupation as a palace. The title “Palace Tomb” is recorded in the earliest catalog of tombs in Petra.

The Palace Tomb is the widest of Petra's Royal Tombs and the last in the row along the foot of Jabal al-Khubtha, after the Urn, Silk and Corinthian tombs. It is called a palace because its broad, storeyed facade looks more like a palace front than a tomb, not because anyone knows who was buried here: the name is descriptive, and inside are several burial chambers with graves cut into the walls and niches around them. The facade is about 49 m wide and 46 m high, one of the largest carvings in Petra. It rises in three storeys: four doorways framed as small shrines topped by columns at the bottom, eighteen engaged columns on the second level, and a third storey that outgrew the cliff and was built of cut stone blocks on top of the rock, which makes it one of the few monuments in Petra to combine carving and masonry. On stylistic grounds, with its simplified classical ornament, it is dated to the end of the 1st century AD. In the winter of 1988 the built upper section cracked and shed blocks; UNESCO emergency funding paid for stabilisation work from 50 m of scaffolding. The tomb sits on the Royal Tombs walkway that begins with a short staircase after the Theatre: from the Urn Tomb it is about ten minutes along the slope, and from here you can drop down to the Colonnaded Street or continue north to the Tomb of Sextius Florentinus.

Where:

Petra, Jordan