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Dolmens (also known as cromlechs, Hunebedden and quoits)
 are megalithic tombs consisting of large stones
(megaliths) set in formation and originally covered with
earth or more, smaller stones. In many cases the
covering has been weathered away leaving only the stone
'skeleton' of the monument. They are a single-chamber
type of megalithic tomb.
Dolmen means "stone table" in Breton and was first used
archaeologically by Theophile Corret de la Tour
d'Auvergne.
Wadi Jadid located within 10 km to the south west of
Madaba city at Al Fiha village. This Wadi is a field of
portal dolmens where you could see more than 40 dolmens
(12 of them standing in a very good condition) and the
rest are damaged probably by  earthquakes. Also there are
several Menhirs, Cupholes and stone alignments as well.
The Portal Dolmen is made from large undressed slabs of
stone. Two big ones stand face to face, forming a
doorway into the single burial chamber. Portal means
doorway, and these stones are called the portal stones.
Behind this, smaller slabs were placed in a rectangle to
form the walls of the Chamber. A giant capstone is
placed on top, supported at the front by the portal
stones and at the back by one or more of the stones
around the chamber. The capstone generally slopes at an
angle  of about 30 degrees to the horizontal.
A Portal Dolmen or Portal Tomb is a type of Neolithic
chamber tomb. They were built by the early Neolithic
peoples of the Mediterranean in the period 4000BC to
3000BC about 5000 years old, from the Early Bronze Age
I.
The locals there believed that dolmens are the houses of
ghosts, they called it in Arabic Bit Al Ghula. |
