Jordan: Petra – Al-Deir (The Monastery)

Rivaling the Treasury is grandeur is the Monastery, another spectacular rock-hewn building in Petra. It’s grueling 2-hour hike up 800 steep steps in scorching heat to get to it, as inline everything else in Petra, Al-Deit is located at the top of the mountains. The Monastery is a wrong name for this since it was a Nabatean temple and never a monastery, but the remote location probably resulted in the erroneous name. It’s a humongous building, much bigger (50 m high and 45 m wide) but less decorated then the Treasury. It faces southwest and as such is almost permanently sunlit. The hike up to the Monastery is spectacular as well, climbing very steeply over red sandstone rocks with sheer dropoffs everywhere.