Qasr of Jordan’s Eastern Desert

Ruins. One word that always seems to make me giddy. I’ve always liked ruins – especially the ones you can climb on/around/over/under/in and explore. That’s how it’s been ever since I was a little kid and my parents took my brother and me to Mesa Verde’s Anasazi ruins.

Jordan has lots of ruins. Like a lot a lot. People have been inhabiting this region of the world for a long time, so the ruins span millennia. Yes, there are the well-known ruins like Petra and Jerash, and lesser-known places like Kerak and Umm Quaiys. But the Kingdom also hosts numerous others, some of which barely have a name, and others that are literally in the middle of nowhere. These forgotten fortresses have been a big component of my research here.

Qasr az-Zahib. As I was taking pictures, a little Bedouin kid who was out herding sheep and goats came over with tea. We chatted a bit. He showed me a nearby cemetery, a still-functioning well, and another set of presumed Crusader ruins that I can't find any reference to anywhere in the literature.

Not counting Shobak, my favorite Qasr (“castles”) are those scattered around the Eastern Desert. Perhaps because they’re so remote, perhaps because they’re less touristy, perhaps because they’re highly under studied. Or, more likely, a combination of all those things. Many of the Qasr aren’t castles-proper. They are more like fortifications – some just outposts along a caravan route, others were maybe ancient motels – all built roughly a day’s walk or so (~20km) from each other, assuming you know which direction to go! Here’s a sampling of our recent explorations…

Looking from the supposed Crusader fortification ruins towards az-Zahib (the pile of rubble in the background).

A toppled capital from a pillar, Qasr az-Zahib.

Walls of the supposed Crusader-era castle.

To get to some of these Qasr is quite the ordeal. Most are not listed in a guidebook, and they require a lot of driving. With a 4WD off road across the desert, over basalt and sometimes very sharp limestone, through wadis…It’s just a very exciting place to drive. Take Qasr Qilat, for example. A lone speck on an old map I discovered, located smack-dab in the middle of nowhere. Literally. It took me a full day to find it, driving around the desert, asking locals if they knew where it was. Finally, I found an older Bedouin gentleman who said he’d take me there. He climbed in my vehicle and as we bumpily made our way through the desert, he explained its history to me and, once there, took me for a walk around it (all this in Arabic…I understand a couple words in a sentence and can usually understand the context by asking questions, even if my vocabulary is small).

Qasr Qilat, with my Bedouin guide emptying his shoe (lots of pebbles in the desert). It is an ancient dam, presumably built by Romans, and refortified by different peoples over time. In fact, you can see where the old stone and newer stone come into contact with each other. Apparently, my old Bedouin guide's father told him stories of playing in that tree.

Worked stone (Mancala, the divots), ~one km downstream from the dam/Qilat, and presumably Roman in origin.

A Roman cross (next to the keys) carved into an overhang above the river, about a km downstream from Qilat.

According to my old Bedouin guide, Qilat was a dam built by the Romans, and used by peoples thereafter…and his proof were some carvings. That wadi stretches for about 2km, he told me. We were the only people in sight or earshot, and all I could hear was the buzzing of flies. So. Many. Flies. On the way back to his tent (more tea), he said I drove like a Bedouin. I took that as a compliment.

Back-up a bit to when I was driving around the desert looking for Qilat. Cresting a hilltop, I came across a couple Bedouin herders atop a pile of rocks. I stopped for a chat and, while we’re sipping our tea (everyone offers you tea and a respite. All. The. Time.), they tell me that we’re sitting on top of an Ottoman-era outpost. “Wallah?” (really?), I said, and they nodded. Then they proceeded to show me stones with inscriptions and toppled pillars! The outpost was/is called Ashid, they said, and I took GPS coordinates for when I visit again. What they said next though really blew my mind: apparently there are several more of these ruins around the area! When I returned to Amman, I searched and searched, but couldn’t find anything on these old outposts. Hopefully, one day I can document them all. Inshallah.

One of the many engravings at Ashid. My trusty Montero and sheep in the background.

The pile of rubble that is Ashid. It doesn't look like much, but many of the stones have engravings on them...

Another neat place we found are the ruins of Aseykhin/Usaikhim. The jury is still out on what exactly this place is named, because the old map shows these as two separate places – several km apart – but guidebooks and ground-truthing give conflicting information. That is, the description in the guidebooks calls the place Aseykhin, but the sign to get there – the turn off that is right where the guidebooks say it should be – says Usaikhim. Confusing. Regardless, it’s quite the site. And just to the west a kilometer or so, is the Safaitic rock art gallery I wrote about a couple posts ago. Plus, the airspace in this area is used for fighter pilot training. They fly very low and very fast. So low that you can see the pilot’s helmet and wave to them. I swear one pilot gave me a nod of recognition.

Qasr Aseykhin/Usaikhim (the pile of rocks on the hilltop in the right of the image). Roads? Where we're going we don't need roads...

On top of Qasr Aseykhin/Usaikhim, (Kaelin in the middle). There are three arches still standing, presumably from Roman times, although, like all Qasr in the Eastern Desert, this fortification was also used by subsequent peoples who occupied the region. The arch in this image can be seen without binoculars from the highway, more than 10km from here!

And then there’s Dayr al-Kahf, just several km from the Syrian border. This place had some archaeological research conducted on it a few decades ago, but nothing since. It was used as housing by locals for many years, until they were forced to leave (and have houses built for them), so historical places could be fixed-up for tourism to help the Kingdom’s economy – just like at Shobak. Even though there is a fence around it, the local caretaker came over to us quickly, waving a friendly hello. He wandered around with us, giving us inside commentary on the place and then, as always, invited us for tea. But it was more than just tea. It was fresh rainwater from their cistern and lebn – a very thick, salty, whey-type yogurt-ish drink, made from goat’s milk. It’s very interesting. We chatted with his son, exchanged family stories, and then left. Ah, Jordanian hospitality. What an amazingly delightful people they are.

The black basalt ruins of Qasr Dayr al-Kahf (in the village of the same name). That pointy peak in the image's upper left corner is actually in Syria! The village itself was very peaceful and friendly. Click on this image and zoom in to see some neat features of the ruins, like a still-standing arch (center-right) and an old cistern that serves as a dump for discarded archaeological material (center).

Inside one of the rooms of Dayr al-Kahf. This is original interior plaster/stucco. It's still there after several hundred years!

Inside the abandoned cistern. The round-looking stones are actually parts of old columns that used to be standing. Where they stood in the ruins has long since been forgotten...

Looking north (Syria along the horizon) from Dayr al-Kahf's southeast corner. Notice Kaelin and our guide in the upper-left and our trusty Montero rental vehicle on the right, for scale.

So, that’s a sampling of Jordan’s Eastern Desert Qasr – those fortifications east of the Desert Highway. We have visited several more Qasr than these, and I’ve been asked to put together a professional, peer-reviewed article on them this fall. But there are still dozens more ruins to explore here. It’s difficult to describe the magical majesty of Jordan’s Eastern Desert to people who haven’t been there. It’s just…fantastic. Hopefully we get a chance to return and study the Qasr more in-depth. One day. Perhaps. Inshallah. We’ll see.