Byzantine Church

Byzantine Church, built in the 5th–6th cc. in Petra’s late antique quarter, marks the moment when this Nabataean capital became a Christian town. Laid out as a basilica and likely dedicated to the Virgin Mary, it is remembered less for its walls than for its floor mosaics—birds, animals, vessels, seasonal figures, and a fisherman—where everyday life is folded into a vision of divine order. Damaged by fire or earthquake in the 6th c., it remains one of Petra’s clearest traces of Byzantine faith and art.