File talk:Crusader Tower Petra Jordan1429.jpg

Nabataean or Crusader?

Quite likely a Nabataean propylaeum on the way up to High Place on Jabal al-Madbah. I remember to have read years ago that the Crusader date has been challenged, cannot find source now, but check out this 2011 thesis:

"The blocks [cut from the quarry around the obelisks] in this case seem to have been used in a monumental construction that precedes the high-place [topographically, not chronologically; from the context] (fig. 12). The function of this is also not known and the building has not been investigated in detail; one suggestion sees it as a monumental propylaeum marking the entrance to the sanctuary area [125]. There is no parallel for these monuments at Petra’s other high-places, and so they are poorly understood." pp. 94-95

Note 125: "The remains standing today are those of a crusader fortress, but there was probably a Nabataean building nearby."

"Fig. 12 Monumental construction preceding the Madbah high-place.". At the end of the thesis. Arminden (talk) 00:54, 25 March 2022 (UTC)