Al- Atshan Palace… A tale from history

Al- Atshan Palace is located in the Western Desert, about 30 km southwest of Khan al-Nakhilah, 35 km southeast of the city of Karbala, and 50 km southeast of Al-Ukhaidir.

Descriptions of Al- Atshan Palace:

It is a square with dimensions from north to south (25.5 meters) and width from east to west (24.90 meters), and it is surrounded by a thick wall supported by eight towers built to be the stilts of this huge building.

Build Configuration:

The palace building consists of a semi-rectangular courtyard, in its southern part, there are rectangular iwans. Pointed arches roofed with a semi-cylindrical vault overlook on the open courtyard, and the iwan opens from the rear with a door of a square-shaped room covered with a semi-cylindrical vault. This room opens to two small rooms on the right and left, which are also covered, as for the western wall of the palace there are three halls of the same width overlooking the courtyard with a separate door.

The importance of the site of the palace:

The palace was built in this particular place to be a point of contact linking the trade convoys with Darb Al-Saai and the Euphrates road that leads to Aleppo, as well as linking other convoys with the pilgrimage road.

Naming the palace:

The name of the palace Al- Atshan is a local name, as it goes back to the incident of the extinction of the water well that was inside the palace, which is the only water source in the palace, in addition to being the source of irrigating the surrounding areas

Palace history:

The construction of the palace was linked historically and urbanly with Ukhaidir, as studies and field research indicated that the palace was built in the same period in which the Ukhaidir Palace was built, And some orientalists, such as Criswell, specify the date of the construction of the Ukhaidir and Al atshan Palaces in the year (161 AH – 778 AD).

الآثاري أو (TheArchaeologist.news) عبارة عن منصة رقمية غير ربحية على الإنترنت مخصصة لأخبار التراث، الثقافة، الفن والآثار. تهدف إلى جمع علماء الآثار حول العالم المهتمين بالتراث الثقافي والمواقع الأثرية في الشرق الأوسط. تهدف منصتنا لخلق روابط بين المبادرات المحلية والنشطاء الذين يعملون على حماية التراث الثقافي في المنطقة والأشخاص في المجالات ذات الصلة بعلم الآثار.

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