Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
threshold in centuries. No, you come to a castle like this to enjoy the excuse it provides to
encounter the desert. It's probably fair to say that you'll never find it without help (in re-
searching this chapter, a Bedouin sheikh and a police escort helped us locate the pile of
greyish ruins on a small tell about 8km southwest of Shaumari). A 4WD isn't strictly ne-
cessary as the gravel plain is firm and when it stops being firm, you can get out and walk
the last 500m.
A shallow wadi runs alongside the fort, home to stunted tamarisk trees and shrubs of
stick-tight (a type of herb). From the top of the ruins, a vast sky opens up across the al-
most entirely flat horizon. The silence is almost audible as the nothingness pulses in your
ears. This is why you attempt a visit to a castle like Qasr 'Uweinid, to experience the ab-
sence of all the usual clutter and noise. If you don't find it, it doesn't matter, but you will
have gained a greater understanding of why for centuries visitors have been beguiled by
the desert, sand or no sand!
Qusayr Amra
One of the best-preserved desert buildings of the Umayyads, the Unesco World Heritage
site of Qusayr Amra is the highlight of a trip into the Eastern Desert. Part of a much great-
er complex that served as a caravanserai, bathhouse and hunting lodge, the
qusayr
(little
castle) is famous for its rather risqué 8th-century frescoes of wine, women and wild times.
Today Qusayr Amra appears randomly rooted on the parched desert plain, but in an-
cient times the site was carefully chosen for its proximity to a lush wadi famed for its wild
pistachio trees. The bathhouse was supplied with underground water, tapped from the wa-
ter table, which lay closer to the surface in former centuries. This potable water was ac-
cessed by deep, masonry-clad wells - one of which can still be seen at the site a few
metres north of the main building. Adjacent to this 36m-deep well a restored
saqiyah
(a
contraption activated by the circular pacing of a donkey), shows how the water would
have been pumped to a cistern diverted either to the baths or to be siphoned off and traded
to passing caravans.
The main three-vaulted structure is well-restored but what would otherwise be a fairly
modest site is made remarkable by the high state of preservation of the floor-to-ceiling
frescoes decorating the interior of Qusayr Amra. An impressive restoration effort has re-
turned much of the vividness of colour to the bacchanalian scenes of hunting, nude
bathing and revelry.
