Qasr al-Bint Interior Staircase

View looking up at the interior staircase at the west side of the west Cult Room.  There are some 30 stairs that lead to the upper floor.  The upper floor was composed of wood and has long disappeared.  After a bend, the staircase continues upward toward where the roof of the Qasr would have been.

Possibly cult activities may have taken place in these upper spaces.

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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.