Jordan · JO

AlAzraq Castle

On the dusty northern edge of the oasis town of Azraq, about 100 km east of Amman, the black basalt walls of Qasr al-Azraq rise out of the desert like a piece of cooled lava shaped by human hands. This sprawling fort—square, low and forbidding, with towers at every corner—is one of Jordan's desert castles, and it has done the work of a garrison, a hunting lodge, a caravan outpost and a revolutionary headquarters across nearly two thousand years. Most travellers come for a single, magnetic association: this is where T. E. "Lawrence of Arabia" made his winter base in 1917–18 during the Arab Revolt, and the small, cold room he lived in above the gate is still marked and open to visitors. But the castle's real appeal is its layering—Roman paving stones, an Ayyubid fortress rebuilt in 1237, a courtyard mosque, and a legendary gate of solid stone that still swings on its ancient pivots.