QASR AL-HALLABAT

The village of Qasr Al-Hallabat is located not far from the highway, at the gateway to the eastern desert. On your way there, you will pass the ruins of an ancient bathhouse, the Hammam as-Sarah, dating from the Umayyad period. The small limestone building has been well restored and the pipes that carried the water to the baths remain largely intact.

Qasr al-Hallabat is an interesting site from a historical point of view, as it provides a better understanding of the transition from Roman antiquity to the Islamic Middle Ages and of the customs of the people of that time. The site was originally occupied by a Roman fortress, built during the reign of Caracalla around 200 A.D. It was intended to protect the Via Nova Trajana, the new Roman road that crossed the province of Arabia from north to south, linking Bostra (in Syria) to Aqaba, which was conquered in 106 A.D. The fort was part of the Limes of Arabia, and was used as a base for the construction of the new road. This fort was part of the Limes Arabicus, the eastern border of the Roman province of Arabia. In the 4th century, probably during the reign of Diocletian, the garrison was enlarged and transformed into a fort with four towers. This was badly damaged by the earthquake of 551 and abandoned. During the Byzantine period, the Ghassanids took over the site and turned it into a monastery. Then the arrival of the Arabs and the foundation of the Umayyad dynasty gave it a new function: a palace. The Umayyads retained the original plan of the building, but added a rectangular mosque to the exterior. Inside, the palace rooms were retained but the monastic outbuildings were transformed into functional warehouses. The decorations evoking the political or religious identity of their Christian predecessors were removed.

The castle visible today is little more than a pile of stones. However, it is possible (with good eyes) to admire some mosaics and frescoes from the period, inside what remains of the old palace rooms. The large mosaic on the floor of room 11 may be reminiscent of the Byzantine tradition, but it is also reminiscent of the lion and gazelles mosaic at Khirbat al-Majfar. The complex iconography of the mosaic, in which a man appears to be guiding an ostrich, may have had a significance that no archaeologist has been able to determine. In the larger of the two courtyards, there is a well coping with geometrically carved arches. The mosque behind the palace was completely restored between 2002 and 2013. Its delicate entrance porch is particularly noteworthy.