Iraq al Amir
The Caves of the Prince
'Iraq al Amir (Arabic:عراق الأمير), located in the Jordan Valley on the hills with high and medium altitude, about 15 km southwest of the town of Wadi Al Seer, the area has many springs, and is famous for its olive trees, in addition to other forest trees. About 0.5 km south of the town is located the so-called Al-Iraq historical site, which was built by a Persian prince in the 3rd century BC. There are many caves in the hills which date back to the Copper Age.
Some precious artifacts, pottery, glass and weapons dating back to the Bronze Age and the Nabatean and Roman periods, as well as inscriptions, gold Islamic coins and the silver Ptolemaic hoard recently discovered at Iraq Al-Amir are displayed at the Exhibition of Arab Heritage and Recent Discoveries, which was opened in 1992.
Hyrcanus the head of the powerful Tobiad family and governor of Ammon, He seated himself beyond Jordan, and erected a strong castle, and built it entirely of white stone to the very roof, and had animals of a prodigious magnitude engraved upon it. He also drew round it a great and deep canal of water. He also made caves of many furlongs in length, by hollowing a rock that was over against him; and then he made large rooms in it [the rock], some for feasting, and some for sleeping and living in. He introduced also a vast quantity of waters which ran along it, and which were very delightful and ornamental in the court. But still he made the entrances at the mouth of the caves so narrow, that no more than one person could enter by them at once…Moreover, he built courts of greater magnitude than ordinary, which he adorned with vastly large gardens.
Qasr al Abd is a large ruin dating from approximately 200BC, close to the village of `Iraq al Amir.
The Hellinistic ruins of Qaser El-Abd are of an enormous palace thought to have been built by Hyrcanus during the 2nd century AD. The name "Tobia" is engraved in Aramaic at the entrance and there is also a carving of a lioness sheltering a cub at the palace. A degree of mystery surrounds the reason of the construction of Qaser El-Abd that was devastated by great earthquake
This site is very important to the archaeologist with a New look at the Tobiades in Iraq Al Amir Tobiads history on the basis of textual evidence and archaeological excavations at ‘Iraq al-Amir. Influential of the Tobiad family in the Jewish Hellenization & their relation with the Greek regime.