Umm el-Jimal

Umm el-Jimal stands on the basalt plain south of the Syrian border, a town built entirely of black volcanic stone that grew from a Nabataean and Roman settlement into a substantial Byzantine and early Islamic community before being abandoned. Its buildings survive to two and three storeys, with corbelled roofs of basalt slabs, cisterns, churches and houses standing among the rubble. UNESCO inscribed it in 2024.

History

Hunter-gatherers left scattered remains and the animal traps known as kites in the nearby wadis, but the first permanent homesteads were built by the Nabataeans in the 1st century AD, as a farming and trading outpost of their capital at Bostra. After the last Nabataean king ceded his kingdom to Trajan in 106 the area became part of the Roman province of Arabia, and after Queen Zenobia's revolt of 275 the town became a frontier post with a garrison and a new fort, slowly turning back into a civilian town as Roman power waned. In the Byzantine 5th and 6th centuries it prospered as a Christian farming and trading community of about 6,000 people: the 150 houses still standing were built then, and 15 of its 6th-century churches can still be seen. The Islamic era began in 640, with many buildings adapted to new uses; William John Bankes made the first recorded visit in 1818, Howard Crosby Butler's Princeton expedition surveyed the town in 1905 and 1909, and Bert de Vries began long-term work here in 1972 (Wikipedia, Umm el-Jimal).

What to look for

• The black basalt buildings - houses standing two and three storeys high in volcanic stone.
• The corbelled roofs - basalt slabs spanning rooms without timber.
• The churches - the Byzantine buildings among the domestic quarters.
• The water system - the cisterns and channels that made settlement possible.

When to go

March to May and October to November are the comfortable months. Summer heat on the basalt plain is severe. Winter can be cold and windy.

Good to know

There is no shade anywhere on the site and the black stone radiates heat. The ruins are largely unconsolidated with loose stone underfoot. Interpretation is limited.

Nearby

Mafraq is west, and Qasr Burqu' is far east in the desert.