Qasr `Amrah Things to Do

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Qasr Al Amra one of the famous desert castles east of Amman. It was built in the 8th century AD, by Umayyad caliph Walid I. The castle was used as a hunting retreat by the caliph and his family, hence the walls are covered in glorious frescoes, depicting hunting of all kinds of strange animals. There were also some badly drawn depictions of naked women, normally banned in Islam, which my old Bedouin tour guide, Hazim, found particularly racy. I guess it gets a bit lonely stuck out there in the desert.

The Desert Castles cost just 1 dinar for a ticket that covers entrance to all three. The guides are not included in the price, or paid by the government, so give them some money, even if they don't ask for any, like Hazim forgot to.

I visited Qusayr Amra as part of a tour (only transport) organised from Farah Hotel in Amman. We were three people in the car sharing the price and I paid 13 JD. The places we visited were Qasr Kharana, Qusayr Amra, Qasr al-Azraq and the Wetland Reserve, Hammam Sarah and Qasr al-Hallabat (in the mentioned order).
We had lunch in Azraq and the driver told us about a restaurant were tours could have lunch (and it was cheaper if we came from Farah Hotel, 3,5 JD), but we preferred to have a falafel at a café. They were very tasty and was 250 fils. We asked if it was possible to visit the Wetland Reserve (it was not in the original plan) and the driver was happy because then he could go to the mosque after letting us off at the Visitor Centre.

Some of the frescos in the vaults of the main hall represent a homage to all those who worked in the building of the castle. There are some other motives, including some sexual scenes too, something really rare in islamic art. In one of the walls you can see frescos of six of the kings of the medieval times, with their names in arabic and greek, which represent the victories of the ummayds.

The castle is one of Jordan's most importat medieval monuments. It was built between 705 - 715 under the command of Walidi I, who also ordered the building of Damasque's mosque. This castle is very small, but has some unique paitings in islamic art. There are human figures painted in the frescos that cover the vaults. It also has a hamman full of paitings, where you can see the zodiac constellations. It is a really charming place.

The most beautiful frescos of the castle are located in the vault at the hammam. It has details of the zodiac constellations. Some of them are now gone, but you can still see some of the zocial symbols, such as Sagitarius. The bath itself has three parts or rooms (the warm and resting room, the cold room and the hot room), each of them with frescos covering the ceilings and vaults.

The hamman is divided in three different rooms: Apodyterium (dressing room), a tepidarium and one calidarium.
The first room that you can see is the tepidarium. It has got a hiding arch. On the roof there are nice painting of animals and a figure of a nude woman. A very strange painting in this room is the face of a man which the scholars think it is Jesus.

In this room you can see a big bathtub, On the roof of the cupula, above the bathtub, there is a fantastic painting of the sky-blue map, which reproduce the North Emisphere. You can recognice the Zodiac constellations and some characters of the Greek and Roman mitology.

Near the painting of the six kings there is the painting of a woman on a sofa and all around her there are many figures.
On the right you can see a nice painting of a woman that exit from an hammam. On the same wall there are many hunting paintings.