Qasr Al Hallabat, the doorway to the desert, serves as a link between the end of the Roman Empire's influence in the region and the rise of the Umayyad civilisation (Photo by Taylor Luck)
Qasr Al Hallabat, the doorway to the desert, serves as a link between the end of the Roman Empire's influence in the region and the rise of the Umayyad civilisation (Photo by Taylor Luck)
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Don’t you know the romans couldn’t wait to get out of there. Hot miserable dry place.
parsy, who figures all arab women must be hot.
It’s always important, when considering desert archaeology, to focus on water. This is because it is the essential element, and there is only three sources in the ancient world that were typically available.
The first is either running water or an annual spring. The deep interest in Artesian wells, where water is pushed up from below ground, was long known in both Syria and Egypt. Such wells were priceless, and were often surrounded by fortifications, being both easier to defend, and important to keep out of enemy hands.
In the absence of groundwater or springs, the other alternatives were man made wells or capturing a brief, annual rain. In the former case, if groundwater was deep, as is often the case in deserts, large excavations were needed underground, not just for recovering water, but as a cool refuge from the hot sun.
In the case of captured rainwater, both enormous live rock cisterns had to be built, and rain drainage had to be designed to direct water to the cistern.
So in the absence of groundwater, the assumption must be that there would be a substantial underground development. The Romans went so far as to mine underground aquifers to transport water miles to where it was needed.
Kind of an idiotic article. It implies there was a long gap between the end of Roman influence in the area and the arrival of the Muslims. While the local Romans got bashed around a bunch in the decades before the Muslim conquest, they were enough in control that the Muslims defeated them in battle and took immediate control of the area. No gap.
