| 11 Aug 2010 |
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New visitors centre enhances tourist experience at Um Rasas
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UM RASAS - Visitors can now enjoy millennial mosaics and Roman, Byzantine and Islamic cultural artefacts in comfort after the recent completion of the Um Rasas Visitors Centre.
The visitors centre at Um Rasas, 50 kilometres south of Amman, is now complete and open to the intrepid visitors who come to the ruins of this once-prosperous town.
The facility, which opened earlier this spring, includes a rest area overlooking the desert plains of Um Rasas, a gift shop, an interpretation centre and even a post office, to serve as a community centre.
A paved walking path now guides tourists from the visitors centre to Saint Stephen's Church, famous for its detailed mosaic floor depicting major cities of the region in ancient times including Jerusalem, Nablus, Madaba, Karak and Philadelphia (Amman).
The site now also includes signposted paths to various monuments along the intricate maze of walls and arches that was once the bustling town of Kestram Mefaa, one of the most prominent towns east of the River Jordan in Byzantine times.
The facility, which was funded by the European Union, aims to encourage large tour groups to visit the unheralded site, which became the Kingdom's third World Heritage Site in 2004 due to its outstanding archaeological and cultural significance.
Distinguished most notably for its Byzantine churches dating back to the sixth and seventh centuries, the ancient town of Kestram Mefaa was also home to numerous open and roofed water cisterns and a Roman fort, the remains of which still stand today.
The area was continuously inhabited during the Roman, Byzantine and Islamic periods, with Kestram Mefaa flourishing under the Umayyads and Abbasids in the eighth century, according to excavations by the Franciscan Archaeological Institute that provide further historical evidence of peaceful interfaith coexistence at that time.
The site even includes a 15-metre tower believed to be a stylite tower, used by Christian ascetic monks who lived atop pillars, such as Simeon the Stylite.
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