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View looking southwest at the three cult rooms of the Qasr al-Bint.
From left to right: the east (on the right) cult room has the stubs of two columns and a doorway that leads to the staircase to the upper floor and roof. In the center of the image is the main cult room where the betyl, indicating the presence of the deity would have been placed. And beyond it the west cult room.
The rooms would have been plastered and possibly painted and/or had carved stucco decorations.
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.
