The Sik slopes gently downwards for about 1.2 kilometres and then you catch the first sight of the Treasury – Al-Khazneh. This façade is of immense beauty and carved with great precision but what is sometimes forgotten is its strategic location at the entrance to the city in a place protected from wind erosion by the mountains.
It is thought that the Treasury was built around the time of Jesus Christ and that it took 80 artisans 18 years to carve from the top down. They piled sand up to the level at which they wanted to work and gradually removed the sand as they moved towards the base.
There are many stories and legends about the origin of the Treasury such as the Bedouin who lived in Petra 200 years ago who thought that the urn contained gold or who saw the sunlight on the façade and thought it was covered in gold but who when the sunlight disappeared thought the gold had disappeared. The story I like most is that pirates had hidden their treasure in the urn on the upper level and some guides will tell you that you can still see the bullet holes where treasure seekers tried to open the urn.
In reality the Treasury was probably an ornate tomb dedicated to a Nabataean king.
If you want a detailed account of the architecture you will have to go to Wikipedia.
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