JEBEL AL-HABIS

Access to it. Jebel al-Habis is the small mountain with tombs that overlooks the Qasr al-Bint and the great Roman temple. Take the stairs on the left after the Qasr al-Bint. If you follow the path leading from the back for about 100 meters, and after passing a group of tombs, you will reach another staircase that leads to the top of the mountain.

Visit. At the top of Jebel al-Habis is a sacrificial altar, perched not far from a small triclinium ("dining room"). An ancient Crusader fortress (or rather, the little that remains of it) stands next to it. This fortress, placed on top of a hill, watched over the main communication routes in the area. It was built under the direction of Baldwin I, King of Jerusalem, at the same time as the castles of Shobak and Kerak, both located north of Petra. The castle was equipped with two enclosures protected by rectangular towers. One of them had a keep in its centre. Saladin took possession of it one year after the fall of the holy city of Jerusalem. The 360° view from this place is impressive. Not far from there, towards the north-east, Nabatean steps go down the mountainside. Behind the Qasr al-Bint, at the foot of Al-Habis, you can also see an unfinished tomb and a columbarium. The columbarium contains hundreds of small niches, the use of which remains controversial (some think it was a pigeon house, others that the niches contained funerary urns...).