Posts
On our way to the Azraq Wetlands Nature Preserve, we stopped at three desert castles. Paul took the above photo at Qasr al-Kharraneh. This might be my favorite photo of all time. Well, at least it's a contender for that title.
These castles were not like European castles at all (no Neuschwanstein here!!). They never housed Royalty (as far as archeologists know). But, they are big, expansive, unique places in the desert, so they are called castles.
Qasr al-Kharraneh was cool because of all the nooks and crannies and how the tiny windows were perfectly placed and proportioned to let in the light and air but keep out the heat and rain. This was, by far, the most photogenic of the three castles because of the way the light hit the inside doorways, angles, and windows. When you look at the picture below, you can see a lot of small slits in the facade; these are all windows that are set at different angles to illuminate the rooms inside and create "air conditioning" so that the inside was amazingly cool despite the high desert temperatures outside.
Qusayr Amra was an 8th century bath house. It was my favorite because of the ancient Islamic frescos covering the walls and ceiling and because it had a sauna and steam room--right smack in the middle of the one of the hottest, driest areas in the world.
The last one was Qsar al-Azraq, a 300 AD Roman fortress, which was made from the unique black Azraq stone. The stones were simply piled together to make the structure; there did not appear to be any cement or mud or anything else holding the stones together. (I'm glad there wasn't an earthquake while we were visiting this castle.) This structure has been used over the years by many different groups of people, including T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia).
Read Paul's blog post about the desert castles.
Read Charlie's blog post about the desert castles.
Read Maggie's blog post about the desert castles (and do not--I repeat--DO NOT miss the Water Buffalo Song. If you do, you will be very, very sorry--I'm not kidding--you will be haunted by this thought: "how could I have missed the Water Buffalo Song? Why didn't I just click the link?").
See my photos from the Jordan Desert Castles here.
