Dictionary of islamic architecture

See also:
Khirbet al-Minya, Palestine, stucco,
Umayyads
Carved stone balustrade next to pool, Khirbet al-Mafjar
Khirbet al-Mafjar (Qasr Hisham)

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Further reading:
R.Ettinghausen, 
From Byzantium to Sassanian Iran and the
Islamic World,
Leiden 1972.
R.W.Hamilton, 
Khirbat al-Mafjar: An Arabian Mansion in
the Jordan Valley,
Oxford 1959.
—— ‘Who built Khirbet al-Mafjar?’, 
Levant
1: 61–7, 1969.
—— ‘Khirbet al-Mafjar: the bath hall reconsidered’,
Levant
10: 126–38, 1978.
Khirbet al-Minya (Hebrew: Horvat Minim;
Ayn Minyat Hisham)
Small Umayyad palace located on the north-western shore
of the Sea of Galilee (Lake Tiberias).
The palace is contained within a rectangular
enclosure (66 by 73 m) oriented north-south with
round corner towers and semi-circular interval
towers on the south-west and north sides. In the
middle of the east side is the main gate formed by
two projecting half-round towers separated by the
arch of the gateway. The centre of the building is
occupied by a colonnaded courtyard with twin
staircases giving access to an upper floor level. In
the south-east corner is the mosque which is divided
into twelve bays supported on piers. Next to the
mosque is a triple-aisled basilical hall, whilst to the
north are the residential quarters.
The buildings is built out of finely dressed
limestone blocks laid in regular courses with a lower
course of black basalt blocks. The top of the walls
were decorated with giant stepped merlons whilst
the interior was decorated with a variety of glass
and stone mosaics as well as marble panels.
The building of the palace is attributed to al-Walid
(705–15) on the basis of a re-used inscription set into
the gateway. There is evidence that the palace
continued in use at least until the end of the
Umayyad period and probably, on the basis of
Mamluk pottery found at the site, later. Nearby are
the remains of the medieval and Ottoman site of
Khan Minya which was an important post on the
Damascus-Cairo trade route.