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Jordan
/ Other Attractions / Umm el Jimal
This area,
55 miles (86km) from Amman, is known as the 'black oasis', due
to the large amount of dark volcanic stone here. The name of the
city means in Arabic 'mother of a camel' and dates from the Roman-Byzantine
period.
It was built
on an earlier Nabataean settlement and is constructed from square
chunks of basalt rock, supported by rectangular beams, also of
basalt. It is once believed to have been a staging post for camel
caravans.
The ruined
city contains a large number of water cisterns, both for public
and domestic use. As Umm el Jimal is a great distance away from
any natural water source, it is difficult to see how the ancient
citizens procured their water. There are aqueducts built at ground
level, however, so it is only to be supposed that the people were
enterprising enough to channel water along these aqueducts from
a distance of many miles.
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