Bab as-Siq Triclinium. (from the Latin triclinium, pl. triclinia, which means 'three benches'). The latter is one of many such rooms in Petra which were used for memorial feasts in honour of the dead. The four magisterial obelisks across the top of the tomb smack of Egyptian stylistic ideas, while the triclinium, with its broken pediment, is more in the classical Nabataean style.
As with so much in Petra, it is unclear when these monuments were carved. Some scholars suggest the tomb is older than the triclinium; others date both to the mid-first century AD. Some believe that the bilingual inscription on the rock-face on the other side of the road, located with all the subtlety of a roadside advertisement, refers to both monuments. The longer Nabataean version reads: 'This is the burial place chosen by 'Abdmank, son of 'Akayus, son of Shullay, son of 'Utaih, for the construction of a tomb for himself, for his heirs and the heirs of his [heirs], for eternity and beyond: [he has made it] in his lifetime, in year ... of Malichus'. The Greek version is simply a summary: 'Abdomanchos son of Achaios has made this monument for himself and his children'.