HISTORIC RELIGIOUS SITE
Byzantine Church of Petra
Wadi Musa · Byzantine church remains
- Locality
- Wadi Musa
- Tradition
- Byzantine church remains
- Type of place
- HISTORIC RELIGIOUS SITE
- Coordinates
- 30.33062° N, 35.44429° E
- Identity
- Matched to a public listing
A brief history
This is the main Byzantine church of Petra, standing on high ground north of the colonnaded street and keeping a lavish, well-preserved mosaic floor. It is one of three Byzantine churches on the hillside, with the Ridge Church above it and the Blue Chapel nearby, the last named for the blue Egyptian granite it was built with. The American Center of Oriental Research excavated the church between 1992 and 2002.
An interesting detail
The excavation found 140 papyri here. Scholars call them the Petra papyri, and they describe ordinary life in Byzantine Petra and the countryside around it.