Jordan has known many influences along the centuries in its architecture, greatly influenced, of course, by the materials the people had to work with. Thus, the main materials used are basalt in the north, limestone and sandstone in the central highlands and mud brick in the Jordan valley and in some areas of the desert.

Building materials

Starting with the early periods of Islamic, there was a time when they baked bricks, but later on, this custom didn’t last since they broke easily, but example of this kind of architecture can be seen in the oasis town of Ma’an. Talking about basalt, some beautiful constructions can be seen in Umm al-Jemal. As far as limestone goes, having a smoother finish, it was well-liked and used more often, as was in the architecture of Roman and early Islamic Jordan.

There are mixes of eastern and western influences when describing the Umayyad architecture, finding a wide range of architectural types, from backed brick and stone, for example. Such constructions can be seen in Mshatta and Tuba. If we were to talk about the most famous Islamic building in Jordan, it would probably be the bath house of Qusayr Amra, fond in the desert at about 60 km west of Amman. As in every bath house of that time, even in Roman ones, the walls and ceilings are decorated with spectacular frescoes, depicting women bathing, royal portraits, a hunting scene and the zodiac. There is one more bath house that is worth mentioning, at about 3 km south of Hallabat, we find one to be from the Umayyad period, probably serving Qasr Hallabat. It was decorated with painted plasterwork and stucco. Even though we can find Umayyad period influence in the design and structure, the individual elements and the way it was built are all Byzantine.

The Roman influence can truly be seen in many places, like in Umayyad castles, which firstly had a Roman use. At Qast Hallabat, for example, you can find a square Roman fort measuring 44 m per side with square corner towers.

Temples – new discoveries

A temple of 3000 years old, from the iron period, specifically from the time of the biblical kingdom of Moab was discovered during some archeological digs. The temple was discovered at KhirbatAtruz, near Madaba, a city situated at about 38 kilometers south of Amman.

The temple dates from the period of 1200-539 B.C. and has three floors, a sanctuary with many tiers and an opened court. This is the “biggest and most complex temple ever found in the region”, archeologists say. They have unearthed more than 300 Moab objects, including a figurine representing an animal with four paws – the god Hadad. Four more altars and a construction offer indications about religions practiced in the area.

The archeologists said that “One of the altars has Egyptian and Assyrian artistic influences, which indicates possible contact between the inhabitants of neighboring civilizations.” Digs began at Khirbat Atruz in 2000. The area is considered one of the most important Moab cities in history. The old biblical kingdom of Moab was situated on the oriental bank of Jordan, on the north shores of the Dead Sea, in current Jordan. One of the capitals of the Moab tribes was Ar, in Arnon valley.

Petra is an ancient city, renowned due to its temples dug directly in stone, the most known being the “Treasury” – a temple in Greek style and is considered one of the 7 wonders of the world and is part of the UNESCO World Heritage. Although it is two millennia old, Petra was considered for a long time a legend, a missing city of the Ancient World. This city was unknown to the Western world until 1812, when it was discovered by Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt. An impressive aspect represents the ingenious sewerage system, through which the constructors controlled the water reservoirs that came from short rains and the nearby river that periodically crosses this area.

Petra is situated in the south-east of Jordan, east of the border with Israel, 262 km south of the capital, Amman, near the Wadi Musa city. ‘The stone city’ is found at the basis of Mount Hor and crosses a long gorge. The entrance in Petra is made through the ‘Siq’ (arrow) gorge which has a width of only 3-4 meters in some places, and the rocks that surround are of hundreds of meters.

Jordan is a country of contrasts and architecture that is worth exploring at least once in your life!