Back قصر الحير الشرقي Arabic Kasr al-Hayr al-Sharki Catalan Qasr al-Heir asch-Scharqi German Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi Spanish Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi Basque قصر الحیر شرقی Persian Qasr el-Heir ech-Charqi French קסר אל-חייר א-שרקי HE Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi Italian Qasr al-Chair al-Sharqi Dutch
| Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi قصر الحير الشرقي | |
|---|---|
 Panoramic view of Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi | |
  Location within Syria | |
| General information | |
| Town or city | Homs Governorate |
| Country | Syria |
| Coordinates | 35°04′26″N 39°04′16″E / 35.073889°N 39.071111°E |
| Technical details | |
| Material | adobe |
Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi (Arabic: قصر الحير الشرقي, lit. 'Eastern al-Hayr Palace or the "Eastern Castle"') is a castle (qasr) in the middle of the Syrian Desert. It was built by the Umayyad caliph Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik in 728-29 CE in an area rich in desert fauna.[1] It was apparently used as a military and hunting outpost.[2] The palace is the counterpart of Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi, a nearby castle palace built one year earlier.[1] It is one of the so-called desert castles.
- ^ a b Constable, O.R. (2003). Housing the Stranger in the Mediterranean World: Lodging, Trade, and Travel in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 56. ISBN 0-521-81918-0.
- ^ Un Château du désert: Qasr al-Hayr ach-Charqi - UNESCO World Heritage Centre Archived February 13, 2009, at the Wayback Machine.