Qasr al-Bint East Cult Room

View looking south at the east cult room of the Qasr al-Bint.  This room is located to the east of the Main Cult Room.  Notice the stubs of the two columns in the foreground.  The doorway at the back leads to a long, narrow, staircase that leads up to the second floor.  This room may have been used for rituals and or sacred meals associated with the worship of Dushara.

---

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.