The Desert Castles

Introducing The Desert Castles

A string of buildings (pavilions, caravanserais, hunting lodges, forts) and ruins - known collectively (if a little erroneously) as the desert castles - pepper the deserts of eastern Jordan. Most were built, or taken over and adapted, by the Damascus-based Umayyads (AD 661-750) in the earliest years of Islam, though the foundations of two castles, Al-Azraq and Al-Hallabat, date from Roman times. The interiors were richly decorated with mosaics, frescoes, marble, plaster and painted stucco, providing oases of pleasure in the harsh desert.

There are various theories about their use. The early Arab rulers were still Bedouin at heart and their love of the desert probably led them to build (or remodel) these pleasure palaces, which once teemed with orchards and wild game. They pursued their pastimes of hawking, hunting and horse-racing for a few weeks each year. The evenings were apparently spent in wild festivities with plenty of wine, women, poetry and song. They also served as popular staging posts for pilgrims travelling to Mecca and along trade routes to Syria, Arabia and Iraq (never underestimate the luxury of a hot bath in the desert!).

Some historians say that only here did the caliphs (Islamic rulers) feel comfortable about flouting Islam's edicts against the representation of living beings and the drinking of wine. Others have suggested that they came to avoid epidemics in the big cities or even to maintain links with, and power over, the Bedouin, the bedrock of their support in the conquered lands.

Last updated: Feb 17, 2009