QASR AL-QASTAL
A must-see Umayyad complex built as early as the 8th century, with a small limestone palace, a mosque and baths
Your visit to Jordan can begin as soon as you leave the airport. The Qasr Al Qastal is located only 7 kilometers from the runways, on the road to Amman. It is one of the most important Umayyad complexes, built as early as the 8th century, and one of the first as well. Unlike many other desert castles, the Qar Al Qastal was not built on the ruins of a Roman fortress. In addition to the palace, it includes a mosque, a cemetery, baths, private dwellings, the remains of a 400-meter long dam and underground cisterns. Its decoration is also influenced by Roman and Sassanid arts. The complex was built by Caliph Yazid ibn 'Abd Al Malik (r. 720-724) and his son Al Walid (r. 743-744). The palace is very similar to other Umayyad palaces in its layout and the many buildings that surround it.
The qasr. This small palace of 68 sq m is built of limestone. Around a porticoed courtyard are groups of six bayt
(self-contained houses), each consisting of a large room framed by two smaller rooms. The walls were originally decorated with colored mosaics, still visible in places. Numerous niches carved in the rock, with plant decorations, have been discovered. They probably come from the audience room on the second floor, and are reminiscent of the decoration of the living room of the Umayyad palace in the citadel of Amman. The salon included a large room with a triple apse.The mosque. To the north of the qasr
is a mosque that has been rebuilt and restored more than once since the mid-nineteenth century. Only the lower courses of the western and northern walls belong to the original mosque. At the northwestern end stands a minaret, the oldest preserved minaret of the Umayyad era. A shaped cornice supports Corinthian pilasters.The Baths. About 400 meters north of the qasr is a structure discovered in 2000: the baths, which were part of a similar complex found at Qasr Amra and the hammam Al Sarakh. The mosaics are splendid, representing in particular a ferocious lion leaping on the back of a huge bull which tries to put it down, and a leopard devouring a gazelle. This type of decoration, inherited from the Roman period, can be found in the baths of Khirbat al-Mafjar in Jericho. The vitality of these animal scenes and the subtle gradations of color place these mosaic pavements in the rank of the most beautiful, and show great technical skill
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