Petra - Triclinium

The outwardly insignificant triclinium should not on any account be missed, for its interior is unusual in Petra.

Not only are the colors amongst the most dazzling, it is also one of the very few carved interiors, with fine details still to be seen in the fluted half-columns and capitals, the niches and the cornice.

Imagine it as it was in Nabataean times, plastered and painted in colors perhaps even more exotic than nature has provided, and aglow with candles and torches, the participants reclining along three sides of the room around the central well.

In this prodigious setting memorial feasts were held in honour of the dead.