Qasr Bayir () is a
desert castle
The desert castles or ''qasrs'' are often called Umayyad desert castles, since the vast majority of these fortified palaces or castles were built by the Umayyad dynasty in their province of Bilad ash-Sham, with a few Abbasid exceptions. The des ...
built in 743 CE by
Prince Walid bin Yazid. It is found in the desert of Jordan and it was destroyed in 1931.
History
In 743, during the
Umayyad
The Umayyad Caliphate or Umayyad Empire (, ; ) was the second caliphate established after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty. Uthman ibn Affan, the third of the Rashidun caliphs, was also a membe ...
period, the future
caliph
A caliphate ( ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with Khalifa, the title of caliph (; , ), a person considered a political–religious successor to the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a leader of ...
Al-Walid II had the castle built in what is today the Jordanian ''badiya'' (desert). The structure was 70 meters long and was built of large
sandstone
Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...
blocks. It was destroyed in 1931 by Beake Pasha and the stone blocks were used to construct an
Arab Legion
The Arab Legion () was the police force, then regular army, of the Emirate of Transjordan, a British protectorate, in the early part of the 20th century, and then of the Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, an independent state, with a final Ar ...
outpost.
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References
Further reading
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External links
Photos of Bayir
at the American Center of Research
The American Center of Research (ACOR) is a private, not-for-profit scholarly and educational organization. Based in Alexandria, Virginia, with a facility in Amman, Jordan, ACOR promotes knowledge of Jordan and the interconnected region, past an ...
Umayyad palaces
Umayyad architecture in Jordan
8th-century establishments in the Umayyad Caliphate
Tourist attractions in Jordan
Buildings and structures in Jordan
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