Landmark Asia
Qasr Amra
Qasr Amra is a small old building in the desert of Jordan. Inside, its walls and ceilings are covered with paintings!
Qasr Amra is a small desert palace in eastern Jordan, built in the early 700s for the Umayyad caliphs, early Islamic rulers. It has a reception hall and a bathhouse with warm and hot rooms, and its walls are covered with paintings of hunting scenes, animals and birds. It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985.
Qasr Amra (Quseir Amra), about 85 km east of Amman, was built in the early 8th century as part of an Umayyad desert establishment: a fort with a garrison and a small pleasure palace with a reception hall and a hammam. UNESCO calls its figurative murals, among them hunting scenes and a zodiac on a domed ceiling, a unique artistic achievement of the Umayyad period. It was inscribed in 1985.
Photo: Jean Housen, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Discover Qasr Amra
Qasr Amra is in Jordan, a country in the Middle East.
It stands alone in a dry, stony desert. A stream bed nearby fills with water only sometimes.
Qasr Amra stands in the desert about 85 kilometers east of Amman, Jordan's capital. It was built beside the Wadi Butum, a stream bed that only has water in some seasons.
It is one of several 'desert castles' that the Umayyad caliphs built in what is now Jordan and Syria. UNESCO says it is exceptionally well preserved.
UNESCO describes Qasr Amra as an exceptionally well-preserved desert establishment built in the early 8th century beside the Wadi Butum, a seasonal watercourse. ICOMOS places it about 85 km east of Amman, near the caravan trail through Azraq, Kharaneh and Tubah.
It was one of several such establishments in the semi-arid land east of Amman, which UNESCO links to the first Islamic caliphate's way of dealing with the tribal region of the Wadi Butum.
- Where
- Eastern desert, Zarqa Governorate, Jordan
- Built
- early 8th century
- From Amman
- about 85 km east
- World Heritage Site
- 1985
A palace for the caliphs
Long ago, rulers called caliphs had this building made.
They came to desert homes like this one to rest.
The Umayyad caliphs were early Islamic rulers. In the desert they built residences that were partly forts and partly places to relax.
ICOMOS says Qasr Amra was probably built under the caliph Walid I, between 705 and 715, though another idea dates it to Walid II, in 743-744.
ICOMOS explains that these 'castles of the desert' had several roles: forts where a garrison could stay, at least from time to time, and places of relaxation where the caliphs could reconnect with the traditional life of the Bedouin.
It says Qasr Amra was probably built under Walid I (705-715), though a more recent hypothesis suggests the reign of Walid II (743-744). The square fort several hundred meters to the north survives only as foundations.
A hall and a bathhouse
The building has a hall where guests were met.
Next to it are bath rooms, one of them warm and one hot!
The palace has a reception hall with three aisles and a hammam, a bathhouse. Like Roman baths, the hammam has a changing room, a warm room and a hot room.
Water was brought by a water wheel and a channel, and a well stands beside the building.
The small pleasure palace has a three-aisled reception hall and a hammam whose rooms, as in Roman baths, are a changing room (apodyterium), a warm room (tepidarium) and a hot room (caldarium), with a service room.
ICOMOS notes that it was supplied by a noria (a water wheel) and an aqueduct. UNESCO lists the adjacent well, tank and water-lifting system, drainage pipes and a cesspool among the parts of this Umayyad desert establishment.
Walls full of paintings
Inside, the walls show hunters, animals and birds.
One ceiling has a map of the stars!
The reception hall and baths are covered with wall paintings: hunting scenes, animals and birds, portraits, and even animals playing music. Words in Greek and Arabic go with them.
The domed ceiling of the hot room shows the zodiac. UNESCO says it is one of the earliest known surviving maps of the sky painted on a dome.
UNESCO calls the frescoes of the bath building and reception hall unique for Islamic architecture of the Umayyad period: hunting scenes, animals and birds and Byzantine-style portraits, with inscriptions in Greek and Arabic. ICOMOS adds fanciful subjects such as animal musicians.
The zodiac on the domed ceiling of the caldarium is one of the earliest known surviving portrayals of a map of the sky on a dome. The murals were made known by the Austrian Alois Musil, who came upon them in 1898, and were restored in the 1970s and 1990s.
- Paintings rediscovered
- 1898
- Zodiac dome
- one of the earliest known
- Restorations
- 1970s and 1990s
Alone in the desert
In this photo, the little stone building stands in a wide, flat desert.
Its roofs are round on top, and bushes grow around it.
This photo was taken on 22 September 2010. The pale stone building stands on a flat, stony desert under a hazy sky. You can see three rounded roofs side by side and a small dome on the left.
UNESCO notes that desert sandstorms and floods from the stream bed can wear the building away, so a dike was built to turn floodwater aside.
The photograph (22 September 2010, by Jean Housen) shows the exterior from across stony desert ground: the three barrel-vaulted roofs side by side, a small dome to the left, low walls and an arched opening, with desert shrubs around it.
UNESCO reports that the monument is vulnerable to sandstorms and seasonal flooding; a diversion dike and tree planting have reduced these threats. A highway built about 150 meters to the east now brings noise and pollution.
Amazing facts
-
Some paintings here show animals playing music!
Among the paintings are fanciful scenes, such as animals playing music.
ICOMOS lists fanciful subjects among the murals, including animal musicians.
-
The bath had a warm room and a hot room, like Roman baths!
Like a Roman bath, the hammam has a changing room, a warm room and a hot room.
The hammam follows the Roman sequence of apodyterium, tepidarium and caldarium, with a service room.
-
Gazelles once came to pools in the stream bed near this palace!
UNESCO says the setting was once a peaceful place where gazelles came to seasonal pools in the stream bed.
UNESCO describes the setting as once a peaceful haunt of gazelles and other wildlife that came to seasonal pools in the wadi bed, shaded by terebinth trees.
Words to know
- caliph
- a ruler of an early Islamic empire
- hammam
- a bathhouse with rooms of different heat
- mural
- a painting made directly on a wall or ceiling
- zodiac
- a band of twelve star patterns across the sky, used in old sky maps
- wadi
- a valley or stream bed that is dry most of the year
- World Heritage Site
- a place UNESCO lists as important for all people
Discovery challenge
-
In which country is Qasr Amra?
Qasr Amra stands in the desert about 85 kilometers east of the capital of which country?
In which country's eastern desert is Qasr Amra?
- Jordan
- Morocco
- India
Show the answer
Jordan
Jordan!
Jordan (its capital is Amman).
Jordan.
-
What is painted on the dome of the hot room?
What does the domed ceiling of the hot room show?
What early surviving portrayal decorates the caldarium's dome?
- A map of the sky
- A map of the sea
- A city street
Show the answer
A map of the sky
A map of the stars in the sky!
The zodiac: a map of the sky.
The zodiac, a map of the sky.
-
What kind of rooms does Qasr Amra have for bathing?
What is the hammam at Qasr Amra?
Which type of building, with changing, warm and hot rooms, adjoins the reception hall?
- A bathhouse
- A library
- A kitchen
Show the answer
A bathhouse
A bathhouse, with warm and hot rooms!
A bathhouse.
A hammam, a bath complex.
-
Who had Qasr Amra built?
For which rulers was Qasr Amra built?
Which caliphate built Qasr Amra and the other 'desert castles' of Jordan and Syria?
- The Umayyad caliphs
- The Roman emperors
- The kings of France
Show the answer
The Umayyad caliphs
The Umayyad caliphs!
The Umayyad caliphs.
The Umayyad caliphate.
-
In which year did Qasr Amra become a World Heritage Site?
In which year did UNESCO list Qasr Amra?
In which year was Quseir Amra inscribed on the World Heritage List?
- 1985
- 1885
- 1955
Show the answer
1985
1985!
1985.
1985.
Nearby places
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City
Amman
Amman is the capital of Jordan, built on steep hills around a valley high on a plateau. Long ago it was a Roman city called Philadelphia, and its Roman theater, carved into a hillside, still holds about 6,000 people. Today the city spreads across the hills, with houses faced in pale stone. About 4.6 million people lived in Amman Governorate at the end of 2021.
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Dead Sea
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Al-Aqsa Mosque
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The Dome of the Rock stands on a wide raised plaza in the Old City of Jerusalem. It was finished in 691 or 692, about 1,330 years ago, which makes it the oldest Islamic monument still standing. Its eight walls are covered in marble and mosaics, and its gilded dome, about 20 meters across, covers a large rock that is deeply important to Muslims.
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Damascus
Damascus, the capital of Syria, grew beside a river in a green oasis at the edge of the desert. People have lived there for thousands of years, and many scholars think it may be the oldest city in the world that has been lived in all the time. Its walled Old City, with its Great Mosque, markets and courtyard houses, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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Umayyad Mosque
The Umayyad Mosque, also called the Great Mosque of Damascus, was built between 705 and 715 by the ruler al-Walid I. Britannica calls it the earliest stone mosque still standing. It is one of the largest mosques in the world, with a vast courtyard, a long prayer hall and walls that once shone with mosaics.
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Jordan
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Wadi Rum
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Al Zubarah
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Al-Aqsa Mosque
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For parents & teachers
What children will learn
- Explain why rulers might build residences far out in the desert.
- Describe how a bathhouse with warm and hot rooms works.
- Explain why wall paintings are hard to protect.
Recommended ages: 4 to 17 · About 15 minutes
Talk about it
- Why might a ruler want a place to relax far from the city?
- How do you think people lifted water from a well before electric pumps?
- Why could more visitors be a problem for old wall paintings?
Try at home or in class
- Draw your own ceiling map of the night sky, with star patterns you know.
- Find Amman and the desert to its east on a map of Jordan.
Key vocabulary: caliph, hammam, mural, zodiac, wadi, World Heritage Site
Where these facts come from
- Wikidata , Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)
- Quseir Amra , UNESCO World Heritage Centre
- Advisory Body Evaluation: Qusair Amra, No 327 , ICOMOS / UNESCO World Heritage Centre
- File:20100922 qasr amra02.JPG , Wikimedia Commons
- UNESCO World Heritage List , UNESCO World Heritage Centre (Linked as a reference; site facts come from Wikidata)
- Wikimedia Commons , Wikimedia Foundation (Per file (public domain, CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA); see each media record)
Checked, not yet human-reviewed. Last updated November 1, 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.