The Lion Monument

Presumably The Lion Monument was a public drinking fountain on a sacred route and there can be little doubt that it was much appreciated by the perspiring pilgrims who struggled up in the heat of midsummer. There would originally have been some sort of basin to catch the falling water and to carry it away to a reservoir-perhaps the one above the Triclinium in the Wadi Farasa.

The fountain is surrounded by steep rocky steps; it is surrounded by an open yard also. Water channels and the outlet in the lion's mouth toward the city center prove that it was a drinking fountain not a tomb as might be mistaken.