By: Ammar Khammash
20-7-2002 |
Ma’een
A village above the Wheatland
Or
The Architecture of stone, earth, and wood |
A lazy destination, good for half a day and in long summer days a
drive to Ma’een is possible after work just before sunset. Ma’een’s
visit can be combined with mount Nebo, Moses springs, and on the way
back a sunset meal at Haret Jdudna in Madaba. Don’t forget your
camera.
Ma’een as a name has been snatched, with all unfairness, by the hot
springs which are some 22 km away from this small lofty village.
Occupying a hilltop, Main Village overlooks the plain of Madaba and
has a commanding 360 degree vista, it crowns an elevated breezy summit
surrounded by a landscape of deep-red soil; the western edge of Balqa
plateau one of Jordan’s most fertile wheat land.
The village is almost immediately spotted after leaving Madaba heading
southwest. As you approach the traditional village center only 7 km
from Madaba, the road climbs up and passes just north of the old
village core. Most visitors pass by on their way to the hot springs
without much notice although traditional Jordanian villages are not
prepared or considered as visiting destination, exploring them
reveals, in many cases, a special charm and a sense of authenticity.
To visit village, a drive in the few streets will reveal some of the
remaining traditional architecture, it will also stir a wave of news;
that there is a stranger in town. When spotting an elevation or better
a group of stone houses, you can stop. Delay exposing cameras for
later, instead you can check the name of the village in the index of
your guide (check different spelling alternatives) and look at some
published maps of the area. This researching better be done next to
your car and not in it, this will give |
the villagers, now watching you, an encouragement to approach and
start a dialog. In general, the local villagers find it entertaining
to meet strangers, after the first conversation things get easier and
in few minutes teapots will be put on stoves, soon you should be
having tea along a private tour of some lived-in as well as abandoned
houses.
Ma’een (also spelled Ma’in) was built on top of churches from the
Byzantine and Umayyad periods. Traditional houses used mostly stones
of these periods, with few alterations and sometimes ornamentation
added. Ma’een like most other traditional villages was built during a
construction boom that happened all over rural Jordan between 1890 and
1930.
When these houses were built, the Byzantine structures were in ruin
for at least 1000 years. In Ma’een until the 1980s, fragments of
Byzantine architecture were still scattered in some of the abandoned
courtyards. Relics such as heavy pillar drums and capitals were too
heavy to use in the traditional buildings, while lighter fragments of
historic stones (including parts of marble statues in one case) were
incorporated in the courses of an external wall.
The traditional Ma’een house has been shaped by the availability of
stone, in plenty, and a limited supply of wood. Stone was used to
build the walls of a simple rectangular house intercepted by few big
arches acting as main beams. With the outer walls, the arches carry a
ceiling made of wood and earth.
Wheat and other grains have almost completely shaped the interior.
With large grain silos built of mud and proudly placed as a centerpece
facing the main door, |
the house functioned as a shelter for wheat and people; enough wheat
should be stored the provide for the yearlong period between harvests.
Typically, Ma’een traditional houses are built around courtyards used
for circulation and works such as weaving or food drying. The
courtyard also serves the function of water harvesting, along with the
surrounding roofs, gathering rainwater during winter and securing it
into underground cisterns mostly still functional from the Byzantine
times.
Ma’een traditional homes represent some of the last examples of
architectural self-sufficiency, the ability of villagers to produce
houses that are “home made”. This architecture retains within it
samples of rural economic independence, and with all its demanding
maintenance -which can be mitigated- it also represents a sample of
“green architecture”, friendlier to the environment and to the eye.
(Ma’een village had an impressive collection of intact reel Jordanian
homes at least until the mid 1980s; I wouldn’t dare visit now fearing
to see the village without most of what it had then). |
