The astronomical dome
The constellations and northern sky, among the oldest such images on a vault.
Rob Oo from NL — CC BY 2.0 · Jean Housen — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Jean Housen — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Jean Housen — CC BY-SA 3.0
A small Umayyad bathhouse in the eastern desert, UNESCO-listed, and famous for what covers its walls inside: complete figural frescoes from the eighth century. That is what makes it exceptional. Walls and ceilings carry paintings of onager hunts, craftsmen at work, women, and six kings thought to include the Byzantine emperor, the Persian shah, the king of Abyssinia and the Visigothic king — and, in the ceiling of the hot room, an astronomical dome showing the constellations and the northern sky, among the oldest known representations of the heavens on a curved surface. That dome alone belongs to the history of science, not only of art. The building was most likely raised under al-Walid ibn Yazid in the early eighth century as part of a larger hunting and leisure complex — not a residence but a retreat with its bath. It is small: three halls and a bath of three rooms. The visit takes half an hour to an hour, and the paintings have been recently conserved and read far more clearly than before. It is seen as part of the «desert castles» circuit, which usually takes in the massive square Qasr Kharana and the basalt fort at Azraq that Lawrence used as a winter headquarters. The full circuit is a half-day from Amman on a direct paved desert road.
The constellations and northern sky, among the oldest such images on a vault.
A panel thought to show the Byzantine, Persian, Abyssinian and Visigothic rulers.
The other two stops on the same circuit; Azraq was Lawrence's winter base.
Eastern desert, about 80 km east of Amman
A group of Umayyad buildings in the eastern steppe raised in the seventh and eighth centuries as retreats, forts and estates. The standard circuit is three: Qasr Amra for its paintings, Qasr Kharana, a massive and nearly complete square block, and the black basalt fort at Azraq. Some tours add Mshatta or Hallabat.
Because the strict prohibition on images had not yet settled in the early Umayyad period, and because this is a secular building — a bath and hunting retreat, not a mosque. Qasr Amra is among the most important surviving evidence that non-religious Umayyad art depicted people and animals freely.
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