The Siq and the Treasury
A kilometre and a half of narrow gorge that opens suddenly onto a forty-metre façade.
Duration
5 hrs – 10 hrs
Difficulty
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Best time
At opening
Open
Every day
Entry price
To confirm
The Siq is a natural fault in the sandstone, opened by an earthquake then cut by water: a kilometre and a half of corridor three to twelve metres wide, with eighty-metre walls. The Nabataeans carved water channels along its whole length to bring water into the city — they are still visible at mid-height.
At the end, the fault opens obliquely onto the Khazneh, forty metres of façade cut into the rock around the year 0, probably the tomb of King Aretas IV. The name Treasury comes from a Bedouin legend: the urn on the pediment was said to hold gold, and it carries the bullet marks of those who tried to break it open.
Getting there
Single entrance through the Wadi Musa visitor centre. The Siq begins eight hundred metres further on, on foot or by horse cart.
What the price covers
archaeological site ticket, valid one to three days; the foreign rate is much higher without a night spent in Jordan. Rates to be checked
Rules on site
The site covers more than sixty square kilometres and the Khazneh is only its entrance: allow eight to ten kilometres of walking to see the essentials, with no shade. Flash floods close the Siq without warning in winter, and they have killed.
