Stylite Tower, Umm ar-Rasas, Amman, Jordan

Stylite tower, 13m high, built for stylite monks, ascetic recluses who spent time in a room atop a secluded tower seeking solitude and practising meditation, Umm ar-Rasas, Amman, Jordan. The tower was in a square courtyard with huge Byzantine water cisterns and a church to the South. It has no staircase but a door opens on the South side of the domed roof room. A channel on the inside wall served as a toilet. Umm ar-Rasas is a rectangular walled city which grew from a Roman military camp in the Jordanian desert. Its remains date from the Roman, Byzantine and Umayyad periods (3rd - 9th centuries), including 16 churches with mosaic floors. Excavations began in 1986, although most of the site remains unexplored. It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004. Picture by Manuel Cohen

Picture No

13426167

Media ID

45120215

Size

5616px x 3744px (5.9MB)

Credit

Manuel Cohen / Mary Evans

Source

Photograph by Manuel Cohen