Cave of the Seven Sleepers

At Al-Raqim southeast of Amman is a rock-cut tomb chamber with sealed sarcophagi, identified locally with the story of the sleepers who took refuge in a cave from persecution and woke centuries later, a narrative told in Christian tradition as the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus and in the Quran in the sura of the Cave. A mosque was built over it in the Byzantine and again in the Umayyad period, and both phases survive around the chamber.

What you actually see

• The tomb chamber - the rock-cut room with its sealed sarcophagi.
• The two mosques - Byzantine and Umayyad phases built above the cave.
• The shared narrative - a story told in both Christian and Islamic tradition.
• The site setting - the hillside southeast of the modern city.

When to go

Year round; the site keeps daytime hours and closes some days. Fridays restrict access around prayer. Mornings are quietest.

Honest expectations

Other places claim to be the cave of the same story, and the identification is traditional rather than proven. The site is small and half an hour covers it. It sits in an unremarkable suburb.

Nearby

Amman is northwest, and Iraq al-Amir is west.