File:Qusayr_Amra.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
Key facts
- Location
- Zarqa Governorate , Jordan
- Built
- 743 A.D.
- Elevation
- 520m
- Architectural style
- Umayyad
- Official name
- Quseir Amra
- Type
- Cultural
- Criteria
- i, iii, iv
- Designated
- 1985 (9th session )
- Region
- Arab States
via Wikipedia infobox
Described at
Link to a page describing this subject · 1,425 chars · not written by Vinony
Wikidata facts
Show 6 more facts
- Commons category
- Quseir Amra
- heritage designation
- World Heritage Site
- architectural style
- Islamic architecture
- described at URL
- www.placemania.sk/svetova-zaujimavost/qasr-amra
- culture
- Islam
- native label
- قصر عمرة
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~17 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Qusayr 'Amra or Quseir Amra, sometimes also named Qasr Amra (Arabic: قصر عمرة, romanized: Qaṣr ‘Amrah, lit. 'small qasr of 'Amra'), is the best-known of the desert castles located in present-day eastern Jordan. It was built some time between 723 and 743, by Walid Ibn Yazid, the future Umayyad caliph Walid II, whose dominance of the region was rising at the time. It is considered one of the most important examples of early Islamic art and architecture.
The building is actually the remnant of a larger complex that included an actual castle, meant as a royal retreat, without any military function, of which only the foundation remains. What stands today is a small country cabin. The foundation has a simple layout with a rectangular audience hall, hydraulic structures, and a bathhouse. The bathhouse is also one of the oldest surviving remains of a hammam in the historic Muslim world.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Qasr Amra” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.