THE GREAT TEMPLE

How to get there. Going down the Cardo maximus, on the left, just before the remains of Hadrian's Gate.

Visit. The ruins of this huge building erected on three levels cover an area of 7,560 sqm. For a long time, archaeologists thought that it was a temple. But constant research suggests that it was more of a huge reception hall. On the other hand, it seems that it was not attached to the royal palace, whose traces are still being sought. The residential area is not large enough to have been a palace and no practical building (kitchen, stables ...) has been found nearby. The remains continue to be called the "great temple" while waiting for something better.

The building was built over several centuries. It is located on a succession of rocky plateaus that the Nabataeans gradually cleared by cutting stones used for other constructions. The first part of the temple was built on the highest platform at the end of the 1st century BC. The 700-seat amphitheatre that partly occupies it was added by the Romans in the 2nd century. It probably served as a municipal assembly.

The temple was enlarged and richly decorated with stucco, frescoes and mosaics around 1950. It is the large platform lined with columns, whose capitals represented Asian elephants. Each of the 536 elephant heads was covered with a thin layer of plaster and no two were identical. It can therefore be assumed that the craftsmen had seen such animals. The pavement and colonnades of the western flank have collapsed. They reveal a double vaulted corridor that supported the structure above. The colonnades are still clearly visible on the east side. The Nabataean king Aretas IV (9 B.C.E. -40 A.D.) had sumptuous gardens laid out on the platform along the east side, punctuated by pools. They were supplied with water by a drainage system running under the colonnades and the central platform. The Romans added baths to the west of the great temple. They are accessed by a stairway on the other side of the collapsed colonnade.

The "great temple" was separated from the street by a propylaeum, a high façade running 55 meters (131 feet) and pierced in its center to allow passage of a monumental staircase leading to the temenos. Small rooms had been set up east of the central door, along the staircase. They were isolated from the street by a door.