Umm ar-Rasas rises out of the plateau east of the King's Highway with little warning, a walled rectangle of Byzantine and early Islamic ruins on a flat expanse of wheat fields and sheep. In ancient times it was called Kastron Mefaa, a Roman military camp that later developed into a town, and it remained inhabited through the Byzantine period and into the early Islamic centuries before it faded away. UNESCO listed it in 2004, and the most remarkable piece of the site is the floor of the Church of Saint Stephen, a mosaic from the eighth century that shows cities of the region in tiny, detailed vignettes, including Jerusalem and Philadelphia, the ancient name of Amman.
A kilometre or so to the north stands the tower. It is a single square pillar of dressed stone, about fourteen metres high, with a small room at the top, and it is one of very few surviving stylite towers, built for a hermit who lived on top in imitation of Simeon Stylites, the Syrian saint who spent decades on a pillar. The holy man seems to have lived alone on a platform exposed to the wind and sun, with food hauled up in a basket. It stands in a stubble field, with nothing around it but the horizon.
The ride to it is a good one. The King's Highway runs along the plateau edge between Madaba and Karak, crossing the deep gorge of Wadi Mujib on bends that drop and climb through dramatic scenery. The roads around Umm ar-Rasas are quiet and open, with desert wind, and the surface generally good, though shoulders can be sandy and sheep sometimes cross the tarmac. Spring is wonderful, with green fields and red poppies, and summer is hot and dry.
Fuel and food are in the larger towns. Madaba, famous for its Byzantine map mosaic, and Dhiban on the King's Highway are the sensible bets, and it is wise to start with a full tank. Bring water and a hat, because there is little shade at the site.
The silence in the stubble field is the best thing about the tower, and it is worth a few minutes of your day.