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View looking southwest from ground level at the Qasr al-Bint.
The Qasr al-Bint is a square structure, 105 feet on each side, is 25 feet high (two stories), and stands on a podium 10 feet high. It is approached via a flight of 19 stairs to a landing and then 9 additional stairs lead to the porch.
The porch is defined by two walls that extend from the walls of the temple (antae). Between them there were four columns—three of the stubs of the columns are visible.
The walls of the structure were covered with plaster that was carved into bas-reliefs. Note the circles within squares on the ends of the anta (protruding wall of the temple) in the center of the image, and some plaster still on the sidewall of the building.
Qasr al-Bint (the "Palace of Pharaoh's Daughter") is located in the Petra basin at the west end of the Colonnaded Street on the south side of the Wadi Musa. It faces north. It was constructed during the reign of Aretas IV (r. 9 B.C.-A.D. 40; 2 Corinthians 11:32) and refurbished after Trajan annexed Nabataea into a Roman Province in A.D. 106.
It is debated what deity was worshiped there. The majority say that it was Dushara — the chief deity of the Nabataean pantheon because the large altar to the north of Qasr al-Bint was dedicated to him. Al-'Uzza (Aphrodite) may have been worshipped there as well.
