The road east was long and featureless. Dun unremitting grey plains stretched out on either side as far as my eye could see. Trails of dust hung in the air to mark the passage of off-road vehicles. I almost didn’t spot our destination until Amir pointed out to our left, his finger sticky with the juices of the honey-sweet plums we had been sharing. Not much to see, a low domed edifice of pale limestone, isolated among the barren wastes. I was reminded of Luke’s moisture farm home on Tatooine at the start of Star Wars Episode IV.

Quseir Amra dates from the 8th century. The wider fortress part of the site is now long gone – all that is left is a standalone building consisting of a reception hall and a set of baths. It is generally considered to be royal retreat for a high-ranking member of the Umayyad dynasty of Damascus. What makes it notable is its interior. The walls and ceilings are covered with quite remarkable frescoes. They are faded, decayed and defaced, but enough remains to enthral: an astrological map, a bear playing a guitar, Venus and her Cupids, Gauguin-esque female bathers (picture). If , like me, you are shocked by such images in a site constructed for the caliphs of Islam a sign at the information centre is quick to hand-wave away any notions of impropriety: the decoration “does not depict any “loose living” or “carryings on”: it is the grape and not the wine that is shown”! A label attached to a fresco of six kings identifies one their number as Rodrigo, a blink-and-you-miss-him Visigothic king from Spain, meaning that the decoration can be pretty accurately dated to shortly after 710 (75 years earlier than the mosaics in the Um er-Rasas’s Church of St Stephen).

I visited by taxi from the charming (and highly recommended) little town of Madaba. I combined two set itineraries into one afternoon – a trip to see Umm er-Rasas, followed by the ‘desert castles’ tour along Highway 40 to the squat, threatening Qasr al-Kharana, Quseir Amra and the blocky basalt Azraq Castle. Total price for the afternoon was 60JD (£54) – 15 JD for Umm er-Rasas, 45JD for the castles. There is an additional entry fee for the castles, a 1JD ticket to cover all three. However Kharana was unstaffed, the chap at Amra waved me through indulgently and it was only at Azraq that I was required to pay.

World Heritage-iness: 2.5

My Experience: 3

 (Visited August 2009)