Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
That's not to say the frescoes fail to pay homage to more weighty subject matter. Look
for the defaced image of the Umayyad caliph and you'll see he is surrounded by
six great
rulers
, four of whom have been identified - Caesar, a Byzantine emperor; the Visigoth
king, Roderick; the Persian emperor, Chosroes; and the Negus of Abyssinia. The fresco
either implies that the Umayyad ruler was their equal or better, or it is simply a pictorial
list of Islam's enemies.
And if the frescoes pay lip service to concerning matters of the day, they also encom-
pass their own mostly-forgotten symbolism too. A small doorway leads to the left through
the three small rooms that made up the baths. The
apodyterium
(changing room) has
three blackened faces on the ceiling, said to depict the three stages of man's life. Local
Christians believe the central figure to be a depiction of Christ. The left wall has a hallu-
cinogenic painting of an exuberant bear playing the banjo, egged on by an applauding
monkey which no doubt would have suggested some political vanity of the day.
In the
tepidarium
(where warm water was offered and warm air circulated beneath the
floor) naked women bathe a child while in the neighbouring hot-water
calidarium
, which
is closest to the furnace outside, a whole Dome of Heaven spirals around the ceiling. This
map of the northern hemisphere sky, accompanied by the signs of the zodiac, is among the
earliest known attempts to represent the universe on anything other than a flat surface.
Centaur-like Sagittarius, the Great Bear and several other zodiac signs (see the map in the
visitor centre for details) would have been a fitting ultimate subject of contemplation for
contemporary bathers.
THE FRESCOES OF QUSAYR AMRA
The information boards in the visitor centre at Qusayr Amra assure the visitor that: 'None of the paintings of Qusayr
Amra portray scenes of unbridled loose-living or carryings-on'. Given the context of early Islam's prohibition of
any illustrations of living beings, it's difficult to agree.
Just how far these boundaries were pushed is evident on the western wall of the audience hall, where there is a
depiction of a nude woman bathing. Some historians speculate that she may have been modelled on the favourite
concubine of the ruler of Amra. The more your eyes roam the walls, past images of musicians, naked dancers, cher-
ubs, baskets of fruit (and even a bear playing a banjo!) the more the heresy of the frescoes becomes apparent.
And the purpose of all these paintings? Some Islamic scholars blame the Ghassanids, a pagan Arab tribe that
ruled the region at the time of Rome, others mumble about rogue rulers who were not true to Islam. But most admit
privately that it seems as though the rulers were simply enjoying themselves on a boys' night out, away from the
confines of the court.
