Al-Khazneh

Al-Khazneh, commonly known as The Treasury, is the most famous monument in Petra, Jordan. It stands at the end of the Siq, the narrow sandstone gorge that forms the dramatic main approach into the ancient Nabataean city. The façade is carved directly into the rock face and rises almost forty metres above the open space in front of it, with columns, pediments, figures and Hellenistic architectural details cut into the rose-coloured stone. Despite its popular name, Al-Khazneh was probably not a treasury. It is generally understood as a major Nabataean tomb or funerary monument, possibly connected to the royal elite of Petra in the late first century BC or early first century AD. Its position, scale and sudden reveal after the darkness of the Siq have made it one of the most recognisable archaeological images in the world.

Al-Khazneh has appeared in Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) and Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997). These films use the monument less as a historical Nabataean tomb and more as a ready-made cinematic image of a hidden ancient place. Its sudden reveal at the end of the Siq, its monumental carved façade and its association with mystery have made it especially useful for stories about lost temples, secret powers and journeys into remote sacred landscapes.

Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977) uses Petra as part of its fantasy-adventure world, with Al-Khazneh appearing as part of the setting connected to Melanthius. In the film, Sinbad seeks help on his quest after Prince Kassim is transformed by magic, and the carved monument gives the story a sense of ancient mystery and distance. The film does not treat the location as historical Petra, but uses the façade and surrounding rock-cut architecture as an exotic and mythical setting suited to Ray Harryhausen’s stop-motion fantasy style. This makes Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger one of the earlier major adventure films to place Al-Khazneh into a screen fantasy context.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) gives Al-Khazneh its most famous film appearance. Near the end of the film, Indiana Jones, Henry Jones, Marcus Brody and Sallah travel through the Canyon of the Crescent Moon in search of the Holy Grail. The real Siq at Petra provides the approach, and Al-Khazneh becomes the exterior of the hidden temple where the Grail is guarded. The film uses the monument’s façade as a perfect adventure-movie image: a secret sacred place revealed after a long journey through desert and canyon. The interior of the Grail temple was not the real interior of Al-Khazneh, but a constructed film space, which allowed the story to expand the monument into a vast trap-filled temple. Even so, the exterior shot of Petra is one of the defining images of the Indiana Jones series and remains the screen appearance most strongly associated with Al-Khazneh.

Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997) also uses Petra’s monumental rock-cut setting as part of its fantasy world. The film moves through a series of otherworldly landscapes and temples as the characters try to stop the merging of realms, and Petra’s carved stone architecture helps create the ancient, supernatural atmosphere around the Temple of the Elder Gods material. Compared with Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the location is used less as a realistic archaeological place and more as a fantasy backdrop, where the recognisable carved architecture of Petra can suggest a world older than ordinary human civilisation.

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