Qasr Al-Muwaqqar

The Umayyad site of Al-Muwaqqar on the fringe of the steppe east of Amman, once stood on an elevated mound surveying the desert and the cultivated lands to the west. The ruins are located about 2km north of Highway 40. Muwaqqar was situated so as to link communications between ‘Amra/Kharraneh and Qastal. Its position is in the line-of-sight with Qastal and Mushatta to the west and Kharraneh to the east, and is actually visible at dusk on a clear day, which means it would have been visible to anyone travelling out of Wadi Sirhan toward ‘Azraq or the plateau. Qasr Al-Muwaqqar is accompanied by an important water infrastructure, and  has a large number of cisterns, of which at least 18 still remain, along with a large reservoir. Qasr Al-Muwaqqar is the least-preserved of all the palaces.
        
The Umayyad complex site is comprised of at least 2 reservoirs, 90 cisterns, a large Qasr or palatial residence, a second structure of unknown function, but may be an associated bath-house with mosaics. Little remains of the palace today except several capitals decorated with acanthus leaves and Arabic inscriptions, as well as a water gauge to measure the depth of water in the reservoir.

The Qasr and the huge reservoir to the southeast are associated with Yazid II based on an inscription on a huge capital on top of the water gauge column in the Qasr’s reservoir, stating that al-Muwaqqar was constructed by ‘Abdallah ibn Sulaym by order of Caliph Yazid II ibn ‘Abd al-Malik, in 723 AD.

A stone tower (10m) with Kufic inscriptions, now stands in the National Archaeological Museum in Amman, and was found by archaeologists at the site.