Petra- The Treasury

As we made our way through the cave like maze, you get a glimpse of the impressive eastern entrance that leads steeply down through a dark, narrow gorge called the Siq ("the shaft"), a natural geological feature formed from a deep split in the sandstone rocks and serving as a waterway flowing into Wadi Musa. At the end of the narrow gorge stands Petra's most elaborate ruin, Al Khazneh ("the Treasury"), carved into the sandstone cliff.












As with most of the other buildings in this ancient town, the structure was carved out of a sandstone rock face. It has classical Roman-influenced architecture.
The treasury was originally built as a royal tomb, probably between 100 BC and 200 AD. Its name Treasury derives from a legend that bandits or pirates hid their loot in a stone urn high on the second level. Significant damage from bullets can be seen on the urn. Local legend attributes this to Bedouins, who are said to have shot at the urn in hopes of breaking it open and spilling out the "treasure" within (the decorative urn however, is solid sandstone). Many of the building's architectural details have eroded away during the two thousand years since it was carved and sculpted from the cliff. Religious unrest in the area during recent years has reportedly resulted in further damage to the site.





The Treasury has appeared in many Hollywood movies, but has gained more fame in the 1989 film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, in which it represented as the fictional entrance to the final resting place of the Holy Grail near Hatay. The movie Spyhunter depicted it as the façade of a rocket launch facility