Desert castles

The desert castles or qasrs, often called Umayyad desert castles, are a series of fortified palaces or castles scattered over the semi-arid regions of north-eastern Jordan, Syria, Israel and the West Bank (Palestine), Lebanon, and Iraq. The vast majority of these were built by the Umayyad dynasty in their province of Bilad ash-Sham, with a few Abbasid exceptions such as the one in Iraq. The desert castles of Jordan represent a prominent part of this group of buildings.