Our trip would not be complete without visiting the palaces and castles in the desert. Many castles and forts were built during the 7th - 8th centuries on the territory of sand and stone east of Amman all the way to the boarder of Saudi Arabia in the half-desert region.
 

The huge rectangular building of Qasr as-Harranah suddenly appears in the desert, about.60 kilometres from Amman. Among all castles, this was preserved in the best way and has the greatest effect on the beholder. It was a fort and a caravanserai at the same time on the camel-convoy’s road.

The Qusair Amra building was declared a World Heritage site by the UNESCO. Most of the building was preserved; it is the most important castle in the desert representing the era and style of the typical architecture. It functioned as a hunting and bathing facility, but was also suitable for vacations.
 

Al-Azraq was an important stop on the convoy-roads, a place to gather water and rest in the basaltic desert. A fortress was built here out of black basalt which was used as headquarters by Lawrence of Arabia during the Arab revolution against the Turks in 1917.
The oasis in the half-desert was important even in the stone-age, during hunting. The fort of Qasr al-Azraq, made of black basalt, is to be found in the centre of the oasis’ lake- and swampland.
Here, we can find the Mahmijjat ash-Shawmari natural reserve with its protected animals of the Middle-East.
 

Among all castles in the desert this is the most ruined and ancient one, yet due to its relics it holds many information about the early Omayyad desert-properties, their function and way of use. A number of different ruins of other buildings can be seen on its territory that might have been houses of peasants and workers.