Like the Columbarium in Petra,
it has strange niches. This rock however stands on the side of
the hill. Did they have mail boxes back in those days? Did someone
house his collection of little idols here? Did someone have pet
minuature doves? Email us with your ideas.
Some responses:
Could the dove cote shaped carvings at the columbarium
(and other various sites) have been part of the process for drilling
into the rock and removing the stone? Especially since the largest
amount found was at the Columbarium and this was an area that
was a work in progress, part of a so called unfinished project.
There also are some similar shapes found on the sides of the
Khasneh. Was the intent to make these deeper? Was this part of
the sculpting process, perhaps to reach fracture points and stone
removal made easier? Dianne Marshall
I once visited an ancient columbarium, a dovecote, in
Bet Guvrin in southern Israel. Walking the desert surface, the
entrance was quite unremarkable, but exploration inside revealed
an enormous bell-shaped, two chambered cavern. After our amazement
that such a deep cave could exist, we noticed that all along
the walls were carved niches, hundreds and hundreds of them,
each created to house a tiny bird. Rhonda Sabo, PsyD
This picture from Wadi Sir in Jordan, west of Amman, is
for a Colombarium as its shown by Horsfield "Sela - Petra
The Rock City of Edom and Nabataean" in Quarterly of the
Department of Antoquities of Palestine 8(1938),P.87 - 115. Dr.
Younis Shdaifat, Department of Archaeology & Tourism, Mutah
University, Kerak - Jordan
