By: Ammar Khammash
23-9-2002 |
Qasr Al-Abd
or
Palace in the lake |
A destination
providing a brief break from Amman. After driving past the town of Wadi
al Seer, 10 minutes away from the 8th circle, a charming valley provides
instant rural feeling.
This destination is relaxed, excellent for children and provides a quick
outing solution for a spontaneous family picnic
The scenic drive of about 8 km between Wadi al-Seer and the Qasr is photogenic,
and with excellent figs and pomegranates.
The palace provides a good subject for those who like to draw or practice
watercolor.
After the town of Wadi al Seer, the road enters a lush valley. Poplar
trees stand on edges of aqueducts and pomegranate groves cover the terraced
wadi-sides, the whole valley is a site of natural charm.
As the road gets narrower and more rural, a final drive by few fig trees
bring you to a powerful view of this monument within its splendid surrounding.
This palace must have followed an idea of beauty as in paradise, understanding
its overall context can open up enjoyable imaginary vistas.
By design, Qasr al Abd (“Palace of the Slave”) was surrounded by water.
Its architect must have conceived water-reflection as an architecture
element inseparable from the structure itself. An artificial lake was
made possible by building a dam at the lower side of the site towards
the south, and with water running in plenty the lake was kept full. Water
was also piped to reach the palace with some pressure, enough for domestic
use and for gushing out as fountains from the mouths of animals mounted
in the outer walls. Delicately animated by the rhythmic ripples vanishing
in growing circles, the image of the palace was reflected in the lake.
It might be for this reason that it was designed as a simple bold mass,
a symmetric box, with a pillared entrance. With its reflection in water,
the palace would appear as a double structure -base to base- suspended
in mid flight, eternal, and symmetrically framed at the real upper end
and the reflected lower end, by friezes of ornaments.
Until now, the space of the lake is still decipherable, parts of it are
cultivated while other parts are, unfortunately, effaced by the rapidly
approaching modern construction. |
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The lack of planning has
also allowed some multi-floor houses to be built in the proximity of the
monument, competing in height; the higher the new additions the more dwarf
the monument.
As a pre-roman palace, Qasr al Abd is a rare specimen of Hellenistic architecture.
It was built around 200 BC, and was never completed. Unlike typical Roman
construction in which walls are built of stone-courses about 50 cm in
height, the walls of this villa are of only three courses of stone that
reach the full height until the upper frieze. Each course is made of building
blocks about 3 meters high and up to 6 meter long. Some of the bigger
cornerstones would weigh more than 20 small cars.
This Hellenistic villa was, until a century ago, in the midst of an oak
forest. That surrounding has been pictured in the following text written
by Colonel Conder who explored Jordan in 1881, he writs in his book
Heth and Moab:
The scenery in this, and in the other gorges near it, presents a striking
contrast to that of the plateau.
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Clear brooks are running
between lawns of turf, or breaking in falls over high precipices, hung
with brambles, and green with fern: thick oak woods of most English character
climb the slopes, and here and there crown a white chalk-cliff. Lower
down are yellow, red and purple sandstones, the peaks and narrow ridges
of the marl just over the Jordan plains, broad wolds, dotted with trees
and with Arab encampments, and the deep ravines, each with a narrow bed,
in which the murmur of the stream is heard, but its course is concealed
by the tall canes, or by the dusky oleander bushes, blushing with ruddy
blossom.
One last addition to the imaginary vista of this place, the spouting leopards
would have, in the full lake, created a special effect. As the fountain
from the mouth of the beast arched falling into water-surface below, another
fountain from the mouth the reflected leopard sprung upward and met the
first at the exact point. Both the leopard and its moving reflection created
a bow of water, connecting the real half of the villa with its reflection;
the total result must have been of unreal utmost beauty.
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