Umm Al-Jimal: The Black Gem of the Desert

Umm el-Jimal is both a modern town and archaeological site of unknown name, located about 70km northeast of Amman and just south of the Syrian border. Umm al-Jimal is now known as the Black Oasis because of the black basalt rock from which many of its houses, churches, barracks and forts were built. In ancient times the site was occupied from roughly the 1st to 8th centuries CE. After its decline Umm el-Jimal’s dark basalt architecture lay silent for a thousand years, until the Druze reoccupied it following World War I.