Qasr Al Abad

Qasr al-Abd is a rare example of Hellenistic building in the Transjordan. Perhaps intended as a pleasure palace, it was erected about 200 BC by a Tobiad notable, Hyrcanus of Jerusalem, as part of a much larger estate that is now covered by the village of Iraq al-Emir. The Qasr was originally surrounded by a large excavated reflecting pool (or moat, according to the 1st century AD Jewish historian Josephus, who considered the Qasr to be a fortress; its tentative identification as a pleasure palace is due to the contemporary Israeli archaeologist, Ehud Netzer.)