The Barracks tower
Four archangels named on its upper window covers.
M1st91 — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Mohammad hajeer — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Jean Housen — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Verity Cridland — CC BY 2.0 · Jean Housen — CC BY-SA 3.0
A whole town of black basalt on the desert's edge in northern Jordan, inscribed by UNESCO in 2024 as the country's seventh World Heritage Site. Its ancient name is lost; its dark volcanic stone has earned it the name Black Oasis. Over 150 buildings still stand, many of them houses two or three storeys high. The first village grew up in the 1st century AD under the Nabataeans; around 180 AD the Romans added a wall, a gate and a great reservoir. After the Christian commander Pelagius founded the Barracks around 412, the town prospered from farming and built some fifteen churches. It lived on under the Umayyads but slowly emptied after the earthquake of 749. Druze families settled in the ruins early in the 20th century, and the Msa'eid Bedouin took their place after 1932. Basalt beams span only short gaps, so rooms are narrow, with stone ceilings on corbels and cantilevered stairs climbing outside walls. The Barracks keeps the corner tower added when it became a monastery, the four archangels' names carved on its upper window covers. The Sheikh's House holds the town's emblem, a double-arched window in the east wall of its third storey. The Roman reservoir, its intake channel reopened, fills with rain every year; House 119 by the entrance holds the visitor centre and museum. Umm el-Jimal lies about 17 km east of Mafraq and some 80 km north-east of Amman by road; allow at least two hours. Qasr al-Hallabat and Hammam as-Sarah, about 45 km south by road, make a good second stop.
Four archangels named on its upper window covers.
The town's emblem, in the Sheikh's House.
Stone steps jutting from the walls.
Umm el-Jimal, Mafraq Governorate, about 17 km east of Mafraq
About 7 km from it, outside the 3 km strip along the border where the UK Foreign Office advises against all travel; the road in from Mafraq approaches from the south.
About an hour by car from Amman: head for Mafraq, take Highway 10 east, then turn north for the last 4 km or so to the town.