archaeology
Hisham’s Palace — standing ruins
An arched recess and freestanding columns reveal fragments of an Umayyad complex.
The story behind the place
Khirbat al-Mafjar, commonly called Hisham’s Palace, lies north of Jericho. Palestine’s tentative-list submission to UNESCO describes an Umayyad complex with a palace, audience hall, baths, a mosque and richly decorated floors. The standing walls and columns offer glimpses of that larger place. They also carry a later history: excavations and conservation have included reconstruction using both recovered and modern materials. Reading the ruins means noticing those layers, rather than imagining every stone is untouched or every missing roof still stands.
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