Temple of Winged Lions

The temple has been excavated since 1973 by Dr Hammond, it got its name from the lions which face each other from either side of the door, but they are now badly worn and many people have difficulty in seeing them at first. The temple was dedicated to the fertility goddess Allat or Atargatis/ Al-'Uzza.
Dr Hammond's latest analysis of Nabataean deities led him to believe that the temple may in fact have been dedicated to Allat, and not to Atargatis/ Al-'Uzza, though there is much scholarly debate about who was Dushara's female consort, and the deity that was worshiped at this temple. Excavations showed that the Temple got burnt in the beginning of the second century A.D., and it was destroyed in 363 A.D. by a strong earthquake.

The temple is a small classical work possibly of the early Roman period. It is composed of a small chamber measuring 17.42 meters square, oriented north-south, and with arched support along the east, west and south. It is decorated with flanking corner pilasters and elaborately carved frieze and capitals.

The frieze is divided into alternation of triglyphs and metopes, the metopes have masculine buttoned discs except for those above the pilasters which are adorned with masks of a Medusa character. This simple composition is topped of with a low-pitched pediment. The space above the door would once have been a separate window. There are traces of slender pilasters at the door and these must have carried an architectural feature like nearly all the other classical and post-Assyrian types. The internal arrangement of this compact temple must have been quite colorful and moving.

The four walls had alternating engaged semi-columns and niches, with ledges inside the niches to hold votive objects, such as fragments of an Egyptian funerary statuette and a Nabataean god block found near two of the ledges. The niches were elaborately decorated with plaster and painted with male busts and male and female figures in classical poses, dolphins closest to a chalice and geometric and floral motifs.

There are several tombs on the surrounding area which would have justified the need for this triclinium for funeral feasts.