Excavations and restoration work at Qasr al-Bint were started in the late fifties by the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem and are still conducted by the Department of Antiquities of Jordan.
The Nabataean temple of Qasr Al-Bint is standing within a large paved temenos to a height of 23m. it is surrounded by a peribolos, an enclosure wall, to which seats were added during the time of King Aretas IV ( 9BC-AD40) according to two inscriptions, one of which is still engaged between the seats.
The northern façade is atetrastyle-in-antis ( four columns framed by pilasters) and approached through a monumental stairway, rivetted with marble. An altar for sacrifices faces the cultic chaple to the north.
the priests proceeded from the pronaos to the cella and to the tripartite adyton or holy of the holies according to the Syrian tradition. In the central chapel the idols were exposed on a raised platform. A fourth century author recorded that the temples was dedicated to Dhu-Shara and his virgin mother al-Uzza-Aphrodite. Greek inscriptions and a fragmentary eye-idol discovered in the temple confirm this attribution.
The side chambers had balcony roofs, accessible through stairways logged in the walls. They served for sacred symposia and were provided with marble seats. The upper floors were probably for the storage of archives and sacred objects. Qasr Al-Bint was remarkable for its inner and outer stucco decoration, representing ashlar courses, relief panels and vegetal scrolls. A marble dado rivetted the inner wall to a height of 70cm.The temple was built in the second half of the first century BC and reused by the Romans in the second century AD. At the end of the third century AD the monument was looted and intentionally destroyed by fire-before it was struck by the AD 363 earthquake. A medieval occupation was revealed on the Monumental Stairway.