Qasr Azraq

Qasr al - Azraq (Arabic قصر الأزرق, DMG Qasr al Azraq ) is a castle in the east of the present-day Jordan. It belongs to the Jordanian desert castles and is located about 100 kilometers east of Amman, on the road to the Iraqi border.

Architecture

The Castle has built a square plan with about 80 meters long walls around a large central square and is made of black basalt. In the middle of the square is a small, probably built in the time of the Umayyad Mosque. There are four rectangular towers at the corners of the outer walls. The main entrance consists of a solid, swiveling granite base. Directly behind you get into a lobby where you can carved on the ground see the remains of a Roman board game.

History

The castle had special strategic importance due to its location in the middle of the Azraq Oasis, the only permanent source of fresh water in a desert region of about 12,000 km ². This led to multiple conquests by various groups.

Originally, the area was inhabited by Nabataeans and fell to 300 AD during the reign of Diocletian, under Roman control. The Romans built a stone structure in local basalt that formed the basis for later buildings during the Byzantine Empire and the dynasty of the Umayyads on the site.

His final appearance was Qasr al - Azraq in 1237, when the Mamelukes, under Izz ad-Din Aibak it redesigned and extensions to the castle.

In the 16th century, the Ottomans built a garrison here. In the winter of 1917 Thomas Edward Lawrence ( Lawrence of Arabia) taught his headquarters here during the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire a. His office was in the chamber over the gate house.

Wetlands

The Wetlands near the Qasr al - Azraq offer a number of migratory birds protection. Numerous ducks, larks and lapwings, but also eagles use the wetlands on their trip to Africa. The Wetlands were once much more extensive - but the big cities such as Amman claimed so much water that the wetland has shrunk more and more middle of the desert. Today, the government is making repeated attempts to preserve the remains of the marsh.