Qasr al-Qastal

The Umayyad site of al-Qastal is located 25 km due south of Amman, near the desert highway which leads to Queen Alia International Airport. The site comprises a conglomerate of separate and widely spaced units which include: a qasr, a bath, a mosque, a village, a cemetery and numerous underground cisterns as well as a substantial dam about 400 m long and 4,50 m wide.

The qasr is built of dressed limestone blocks, occasionally of megalithic size, with an alternation of one stone showing its long side and another one showing its short face, with a rubble core. The building originally had three quarter-round buttresses at the corners and three half-round ones on each of the north, south and west sides, with four on the east side, two of the latter are part of the entrance gate. The entrance opens onto a long vestibule divided into two squares bays by a transverse arch with bench and elbows-rests on either side. A narrow door at the far end of the vestibule leads into a porticoed courtyard. Around the courtyard are groups of six bayt (self-contained living units), each consisting of a large main room with two smaller ones on either side. The porticoes and most of the rooms were originally paved with colored mosaics which can still be seen here and there. Many sculpted blocs in the shape of niches with vegetal decoration have been found. They were probably coming from the audience hall on the first floor, and remind the decoration of the hall of the Umayyad Palace in the Citadel of Amman.

To the north of the qasr is a mosque which has been rebuilt and restored more than once since the middle of the nineteenth century. Only the lower courses of the western and northern walls belong to the original mosque. In the northwestern corner is a minaret with a cylindrical shaft resting on a rectangular base. A projecting moulded cornice marks the beginning of the second storey and serves as a base for channeled Corinthian pilasters. The importance of this minaret lies in the fact that it is the earliest minaret surviving from the Umayyad period with the one at Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqî. About 400 m to the North-West of the qasr is a partially preserved structure with splendid mosaic pavements uncovered in the course of Salvage excavations in the year 2000. The building may have been part of a bath complex similar in plan to Qusayr ‘Amra and Hammam al-Sarah.

The mosaic floors show, among other scenes, a fierce lion that has just pounced on the back of a bulky bull trying to bring him down, and a leopard devouring a gazelle. This type of decoration, inherited from the Roman times, can also be seen in the baths at Khirbat al-Mafjar, closed to Jericho. The vitality of the animal scenes and the subtle gradation of color tones make these mosaics superior to comparable floors and show considerable technical skill.

Poetry of the Umayyad period associate Qastal with the Caliph Yazid ibn ‘Abd al-Malik (r.720- 724) and his son al-Walid (r. 743-744). By its plan and the presence of many structures in its surroundings, the palace is very close to the other Umayyad ones. Its decoration is, like on other Umayyad buildings, a kind of synthesis of Roman and Sasanian influences.