MIT Libraries logoDome

MIT
View Item 
  • Dome Home
  • Visual Collections
  • Architecture, Urban Planning, and Visual Arts
  • View Item
  • Dome Home
  • Visual Collections
  • Architecture, Urban Planning, and Visual Arts
  • View Item
JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

Qusayr 'Amra

Walid I, Caliph
Thumbnail
Download007530_cp.jpg (163.7Kb)
Alternate file
007530_sv.jpg (986.9Kb)
007530_tm.jpg (37.73Kb)
Alternative Titles
Little Palace at Amra
Qusyr 'Amra
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/1721.3/23169
Description
This red limestone palace is located on the edge of a desert oasis, approximately 50 miles east of Amman. It has been asserted that the Umayyad Caliph al-Walid built Qusayr 'Amra between 712 and 715 AD. Small in scale yet extremely well preserved, it structurally contains two main components: an audience hall and a bath. One enters the building from the north into the rectangular audience hall. Across from the main entrance stands an alcove with two little windowless rooms to either side, admitting light strictly from their entryways and reflections from the floors cemented in glass mosaics. The three rooms that make up the bath -- presumably the apodyterium, tepidarium, and caldarium, respectively -- are situated to the east of the hall's main entrance: one of which is tunnel-vaulted; another that is cross-vaulted and the third contains a dome. (Please see the plan.) To the east of the caldarium, a tunnel-vaulted passageway extends into a rectangular enclosed space that remains uncovered. Architecturally, Qusayr 'Amra's most impressive characteristic is its vaulting system, specifically in its use of pointed transverse arches. The incidence of such features demonstrates a strong eastern influence, as there are no known western examples of these arches until at least the end of the eleventh century. Source: Archnet
 
plan (drawing), plan of bathhouse
 
Type of Work
Palace
Subject
Deserts, Mural painting and decoration, Palaces, Ruins, Hammams, Frescoes, Presence chambers, Architecture, Domestic, Walid I, Caliph, d. 715, Architecture, Islamic --Jordan, World Heritage areas, Bathhouses
Rights Statement
All rights reserved
Item is Part of
114161
Metadata
Show full item record

Collections
  • Architecture, Urban Planning, and Visual Arts

Browse

All of DomeCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateCreatorsTitlesSubjectsThis CollectionBy Issue DateCreatorsTitlesSubjects

My Account

Login
MIT Libraries
PrivacyPermissionsAccessibilityContact us
MIT
Content created by the MIT Libraries, CC BY-NC unless otherwise noted. Notify us about copyright concerns.