Qusayr Amra stands alone in the stony desert of eastern Jordan, in the Wadi Butm, about twenty-five kilometres from Azraq and some eighty from Amman. It is a small, low building of pale stone with three barrel-vaulted halls and a bathhouse, built in the early eighth century under the Umayyad caliphs, and its plain exterior hides some of the most surprising paintings in the early Islamic world.
The interior walls and ceilings are covered with frescoes. They show hunting scenes, musicians and dancers, bathing women, and figures of kings, and in the small domed bath chamber the sky is painted as a map of the constellations. Pictures of people, and especially of nude women, were later forbidden or avoided in much of the Muslim world, which makes these paintings unusually revealing about the life of the court. The building was probably a retreat and bathhouse for a prince, perhaps the future caliph al-Walid II, who loved hunting, wine and poetry. UNESCO listed it in 1985, and it has been restored with international help.
The way there is part of the desert castles circuit, a loop of Umayyad and Roman remains east of Amman. The main road, Highway 40, heads east from the capital towards Azraq, mostly straight and fast across a stony plateau of black basalt and pale flint, and it carries a steady stream of trucks heading for Saudi Arabia and Iraq, so overtaking calls for patience. There are no corners to speak of, but the wind is often strong and sudden, and the heat in summer is severe, with the ground reflecting like an oven. Spring and autumn are better, and the light in the late afternoon turns the desert gold. Winters can be bitterly cold and wet, and flash floods run down the wadis after heavy rain, so check the weather.
Fuel is a real consideration. There is little between Amman and Azraq, so fill the tank in Zarqa or in Azraq, a town of fifteen thousand people with a mix of Circassian and Druze communities. Azraq also has a wetland reserve, once a great oasis that has been mostly drained for the capital's water supply. Carry plenty of water and a hat,, and give your eyes a minute to adjust when you step into the dim rooms.