The basalt door
One stone slab on a stone pivot.
Teo Gomez — Public domain · xorge — CC BY-SA 2.0 · xorge — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Jean Housen — CC BY 3.0 · xorge — CC BY-SA 2.0
A fortress of black basalt in the heart of the Azraq oasis, on the old caravan road between Jordan, Arabia and Iraq. The Romans built the first fort here around 300 AD to guard the oasis and its water; the Ayyubids rebuilt it in 1237 under the emir Izz al-Din Aybak, and the inscription recording the work still sits over the entrance. Its best-known feature is the huge stone door at the gate, a single slab of basalt that swings on a pivot of the same stone and resists anyone who tries to push it. Above the entrance is the room T. E. Lawrence used as his headquarters in the winter of 1917–18 during the Arab Revolt, and which he wrote about in his memoir. Inside is a wide courtyard ringed by black stone walls, a small Ayyubid mosque in the middle, and vaulted rooms roofed with long basalt beams, the building method of a region with no timber. Azraq is about 100 km east of Amman. Visitors usually pair the castle with Qasr Amra and Qasr Kharana on the desert castles loop, then the Azraq Wetland Reserve a few minutes away.
One stone slab on a stone pivot.
His base in the winter of 1917–18.
Long stone beams instead of timber.
South Azraq, Zarqa Governorate, eastern Jordan
The Romans built the first fort around 300 AD; the Ayyubids rebuilt it in 1237, and T. E. Lawrence used it as a base in the winter of 1917–18.
About an hour and a half by car from Amman on the eastern highway; public transport is awkward, so a car or a tour is the practical way.