Hisham's Palace
Mosaic floor in the reception room of the bathhouse
The palace of Hisham, Arabic قصر هشام, DMG Qasr Hisham, or Khirbat al - Mafdschar, Arabic خربة المفجر, DMG Ḫirbat al - Mafǧar, is a only preserved ruins in Umayyad palace complex five km north of Jericho. He was probably completed under the reign of the Caliph Hisham or his successor al - Walid II to 743 Next to the palace buildings were located on the premises, a separate foyer, a large indoor bath and a mosque. Only a few years after its construction, the building has been destroyed and abandoned by an earthquake.
Research History and Reconstruction
First archaeological excavations at Khirbat al - Mafdschar were carried out in the 1930s by Palestinian archaeologists Dimitri Baramki, who initially expected to be found a Byzantine system, but quickly realized the importance of the building as one of the earliest known Islamic palaces and documented his subsequent discoveries carefully. In 1959, its British counterpart Robert W. Hamilton presented a variety of basic art historical studies to the palace of Hisham.
The latest research into the complex by Donald Whitcomb and Hamdan Taha suggests that it was at Ḫirbat al - Mafǧar not only a palace but an agriculturally used farm and a proto settlement, its importance for the region only still of Tell es - Sultan 'll exceeded. Due to the increasingly recognized archaeological, art-historical and touristic importance of the palace of Hisham, he was repeatedly extensively restored in recent years, especially in the 1990s by a Palestinian- Italian team under the patronage of UNESCO and recently at the Jericho Mafjar Projects of Palestinian Antiquities authority and the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.
Description of the plant
The palace of Hisham was designed as a winter residence and consisted of several blocks. The largest building was originally located in the West two-storey residence, in addition, there was a mosque and a bath house with attached music room. To the east of the complex, the 40 × 135 -foot atrium was with a centrally located, of a gazebo covered fountain. The palace had a rich stucco and originally colored facade, which is only partially preserved, and had its own water reservoir, which was connected via a still partially preserved eight km long aqueduct and more sophisticated irrigation with fresh water sources.
Located in the north of the plant than average bath house derives from Roman architectural models. It was heated by a hypocaust and had latrines. The floor of the lobby is covered with a mosaic of very well preserved. The presentation has since become quite famous shows a fruit-bearing tree - probably the tree of life - with three gazelles and an attacking lion. The massive pillars of the system are decorated with Akanthuskapitelen, the roof no longer obtained was crossed by arches and crowned by a dome. Human and animal figures in great abundance completed the decoration of the plant. Overall, the mosaics, stucco designs and sculptures of the palace, which show significant Sassanid and Byzantine influences, considered one of the finest works of the time at all.
North of the complex there are ruins, whose significance is not yet fully understood and appear to have been used after the destruction of the palace on. Originally it was assumed that it had acted as a caravanserai, but is considered a use for agricultural purposes now considered likely.