Reflected Morning Light at Ed-Deir

Ed-Deir roughly translates to "the monastery" which reflects the fact that it was used by a group of Byzantine monks well after the city of Petra was abandoned. It's original purpose is not known although like most of the rock facades in Petra it is believed to be a funerary structure.

The facade is solid rock which is more easily visible in the indirect morning light since you can make out some of the striations in the peppermint striped sandstone that is unique to the area. Afternoon light is harsh and tends to wash out the details in the stone.



C&C always welcome.

A fascinating place. I like the figure in the doorway, it adds excellent scale.

Wow now that is a tomb! Did you venture inside? It looks like it goes directly into the mountain! Very cool image Alan.

Darcy Grizzle said:

Wow now that is a tomb! Did you venture inside? It looks like it goes directly into the mountain! Very cool image Alan.

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Definitely goes into the mountain since the whole thing was carved out of the mountain to begin with. The room inside is not all that large and is simply a rectangular room. That is true of almost all of the carved stone facades that surround Petra.

Wow, the labor and artistic talent that was used here is astounding. Good light and framing.

This is cool. The figure in the doorway really brings the scale home.

Amazing structure. A wonder what those folks could do with the tools of the day!

Hey Alan, how interesting for you to have been back there. It would be interesting to have been able to post a photo from today in comparison.

I like that person, it adds a sense of mystery to the image, is that perhaps Indiana Jones?

JimFox said:

Hey Alan, how interesting for you to have been back there. It would be interesting to have been able to post a photo from today in comparison.

I like that person, it adds a sense of mystery to the image, is that perhaps Indiana Jones?

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I am not certain how easy it would be to replicate my tripod holes from back then. I got up inside of an alcove carved into the opposite side of the basin where ed-Deir is to shoot this so I could shield my lens from the sun glare (no lens hood).

I have seen more than a few modern images from the Petra area that include chain link fencing to keep people from getting up on things as there are a lot more tourists coming through now. The number of people who came into Petra and actually explored the countryside beyond the main colonnaded street back in the mid 70's was quite minuscule. This is no longer true after some images of the place ended up in movies like Indiana Jones.

The individual in the doorway is not Indiana Jones - a member of our excavation teams.

I am posting an update to this image. After processing several more slides from my Petra collection I noticed a distinct shift towards green for the tint on quite a few slides and updated this to reflect the corrections.