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Anciently called "The Black Gem of The Desert", and
presently called "The Black Oasis" The black basalt city
of Umm Al Jimal lies on the flat desert of northern
Jordan.
Historians believe that it was built originally by the
Nabateans around 2000 years ago. The name
 Umm
Al Jimal means "mother of camels" in Arabic. The large
vacant area in the town center was reserved for
traveling caravans stopping in Umm Al Jimal.
Herod the Great drove the Nabateans out of their
northern domains around 30 BC and the Romans soon
extended their rule over the entire area. Umm Al-Jimal
was greatly enlarged from the 2nd century AD onwards,
and became an important military base - it was enclosed
within walls; a new
 reservoir
was built, as well as a sophisticated hydraulic system
outside the city to supply its cisterns and reservoirs;
and a vast, but now ruinous, fort was constructed - to
be replaced under the Byzantines in the early 5th
century by the much smaller, and well preserved,
barracks, for by now the military role of the city had
diminished.
After surviving a number of catastrophic events
including the Persian invasion, plagues, and minor
earthquakes, the city was destroyed by a massive
earthquake in 747 CE. |
