Hammam al-Sarah is an

Umayyad The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by the ...

bathhouse Public baths originated when most people in population centers did not have access to private bathing facilities. Though termed "public", they have often been restricted according to gender, religious affiliation, personal membership, and other cr ...

(''

hammam A hammam ( ar, حمّام, translit=ḥammām, tr, hamam) or Turkish bath is a type of steam bath or a place of public bathing associated with the Islamic world. It is a prominent feature in the culture of the Muslim world and was inherited f ...

'') in

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

, built in connection with the complex of Qasr al-Hallabat, which stands some to the west. Along with examples in the other desert castles of Jordan, it is one of the oldest surviving remains of a Muslim bathhouse.

Description

Qasr al-Hallabat is one of the Umayyad complexes collectively known as the

desert castles The Umayyad desert castles, of which the desert castles of Jordan represent a prominent part, are fortified palaces or castles in what was the then Umayyad province of Bilad al-Sham. Most Umayyad "desert castles" are scattered over the semi-arid ...

, with Hammam al-Sarah once functioning as its bathhouse. Hammam al-Sarah's design shows similarities to that of

Qusayr 'Amra It is not known who the woman represents, but due to the apparent classical and late Roman style of depicting her, a number of mythological persons have been suggested. Qusayr 'Amra or Quseir Amra, ''lit.'' "small qasr of 'Amra", sometimes also na ...

, another one of the desert castles. The design consists of a rectangular audience hall as well as the actual baths. The baths comprise an

apodyterium In ancient Rome, the apodyterium (from grc, ἀποδυτήριον "undressing room") was the primary entry in the public baths, composed of a large changing room with cubicles or shelves where citizens could store clothing and other belongings ...

(changing room),

tepidarium The tepidarium was the warm (''tepidus'') bathroom of the Roman baths heated by a hypocaust or underfloor heating system. The speciality of a tepidarium is the pleasant feeling of constant radiant heat which directly affects the human body from t ...

(warm room) and

caldarium 230px, Caldarium from the Roman Baths at Bath, England. The floor has been removed to reveal the empty space where the hot air flowed through to heat the floor. A caldarium (also called a calidarium, cella caldaria or cella coctilium) was a room ...

(hot room), with attached furnace, water well, '' sāqiyah'' or water-lifting device, and raised water tank. In terms of decoration, door jambs were found to have been decorated with fluted mouldings of the same type, but more complex than those from the Hallabat mosque and the bath porch of

Khirbat al-Mafjar Hisham's Palace ( ar, قصر هشام '), also known as Khirbat al-Mafjar ( ar, خربة المفجر), is an important early Islamic archaeological site in the Palestinian city of Jericho, in the West Bank. Built by the Umayyad dynasty in the f ...

. The walls, built of finely dressed stone masonry, carried a decoration of carved mouldings. Only scarce remains of

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...

were found during excavations, and seem to have been used only as frames for doors and windows. The windows were probably glazed, as suggested by fragments of flat, coloured glass, and helped control the temperature. The mosque attached to the northernmost corner of the service rooms (i.e. the furnace) was added at a later date. When exactly was still being debated (as of 2016), as there is no material evidence go by, but it's undoubtedly post-Umayyad. Some describe it as "recent" and "roofless". File:Qasr As Sarah, central vault.jpg, The caldarium, before the reconstruction of the dome File:Qasr As-Sarah, side view.jpg, The eastern side of the building during reconstruction works

Research, excavation and preservation

Hammam as-Sarah was discovered by H.C. Butler in 1905. K.A.C. Creswell surveyed and photographed it in 1926, finding the building well preserved, which remained the case until the 1950s, when it was massively pilfered of stones, bringing it close to complete destruction. The Department of Antiquities intervened in 1974–75, excavating the site before undertaking an emergency restoration. Recent work was done by the Spanish Archaeological Mission to Jordan under Ignacio Arce as part of the excavation and restoration project of Qasr al-Hallabat. Arce studied the ruins, published the results in 2015, and set himself the goal of dismantling the emergency reconstructions of 1974 in order to restore and strengthen the building by using current, balanced preservation procedures. As of 2007 or earlier, most of the bath complex was being conserved.ArchNet entry for Qasr al-Hallabat and Qasr as-Sarah.

References

External links

Archnet entry on Qasr Hammam as-SarakhPhotos of Hammam as-Sarah
the American Center of Research
Photos of Hammam as-Sarah
at the

Manar al-Athar Manar al-Athar is a photo archive based at the Faculty of Classics at the University of Oxford which aims to provide high-quality open-access images of archaeological sites and buildings. The archive's collection focuses on areas of the Roman Em ...

photo archive Public baths in the Arab world Umayyad architecture in Jordan Tourism in Jordan {{Jordan-struct-stub

Description

Research, excavation and preservation

See also

References

External links