The Triclinium and the Roman Soldier Tomb

These two monuments are discussed jointly because it is likelihood that they relate to each other. The Triclinium is a formal dining room in a Roman building, the word Triclinium is adopted from the Greek. The Triclinium has no façade, It has a large scale interior approximately 10.5 meters square; it contains the only carved interior decoration in Petra, engaged half-columns, beautifully fluted and reeded, divide the side and near walls into five bays, each has a square headed niche between the pilasters.

The color of the extremely soft sandstone is a particularly attractive blend of mauve and dull red streaked with silvery grey, which creates a delightful atmosphere of mystery in the half light. Roman Soldier Tomb has a forthright classical façade. The central doorway is decorated with pilasters supporting an entablature and pediment almost identical to that on the classical monument at the mouth of the el Barid Siq, and the central doorway of the Urn Tomb.

The framed niches at first floor level are important, for the central one houses the headless torso of a statue in Roman armor which has earned the tomb its name; the other two also have statues but in less presentable state. The interior of the tomb consists of two large chambers, the main one having a series of segmental arched recesses, presumably for the reception of corpses or coffins. The rock above the tomb has five niches carved into the planed wall. To the upper right there are two small Dusares obelisks carved in very low relief into the face of the rock.