The ribbed dome
Ribs fanning from the centre.
Dosseman — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Mohammad hajeer — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Dosseman — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Mohammad hajeer — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Dosseman — CC BY-SA 4.0
A small Umayyad bathhouse of golden limestone, built in the first half of the 8th century AD as part of the Qasr al-Hallabat complex. It stands alone on an open plain, and with its pale dome it can look almost modern from a distance. It follows the plan of a Roman bath: a vaulted reception hall, then the cold, warm and hot rooms, with short brick pillars under the floors of the hot rooms where heat from the furnace flowed between them. The hot room has a stone dome whose ribs fan out from the centre, the finest thing on the site. Beside it is a deep well from which animals raised water to a tank, to run in channels to the bath, and the remains of a small mosque and a house thought to have been for guests. It is usually visited with Qasr al-Hallabat, about three and a half kilometres west, and its design is close to Qasr Amra's, though smaller and without surviving wall paintings.
Ribs fanning from the centre.
Brick pillars under the hot rooms.
That supplied the bath.
East of Qasr al-Hallabat, north-east of Zarqa
It belonged to the same Umayyad palace complex, about three and a half kilometres east, and the two are visited together.
In plan, yes: both are Umayyad baths on the Roman layout, but Qasr Amra is larger and keeps its famous wall paintings.