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TRAVELLER
ICONS
The Treasury
ANATOMYOF AN ICON
Peering inside Petra’smost famous building, Khaznat al-Faron
FAMOUS FACES
ERM, I DON’T THINK SO?
AGATHA CHRISTIE
The “rose-red city” wasn’t just
the setting for the author's book
Appointment With Death.
It was also
her home, in 1934, when she stayed
there with husband Sir Max Mallowan.
TINTIN
The schoolboy detective visited
Petra in the 1958 comic
The Red
Sea Sharks,
on the hunt for his
nemesis, who is said to reside inside a
structure based on The Treasury.
INDIANA JONES
The Treasury featured as the fictional
home of the Holy Grail in
Indiana
Jones and the Last Crusade
. Even the
Jordanian Royal Family came to the
set to watch the filming.
Petra has welcomed millions of visitors over the last 200 years – not all of them entirely real…
Petra is a place of many misconceptions. Here are just a few...
RESEARCH ALEX MURPHY, AARON MYLES. PHOTOS GETTY, THE KOBAL COLLECTION, REX FEATURES
☛
It’s where Moses struck the rock to secure water for his
wandering people after the flight from Egypt (nope).
☛
The Treasury was once a treasury (it was probably a
royal tomb or mausoleum).
☛
The urn above its entrance is said to be full of gold
coins – many Bedouin have shot it in the hope of
dislodging these coins but, so far, failed.
☛
Johann Ludwig Burckhardt rediscovered Petra in
1812. (In fact, it was never actually lost and was on maps
printed just 34 years before this.)