Qasr Azraq: The Black Basalt Fortress in Photos

Built of black volcanic basalt at the edge of the Azraq oasis, Qasr Azraq was a Roman fort, an Ayyubid castle rebuilt in AD 1236–37 and, in November 1917, the base of Sharif Ali and T. E. Lawrence during the Arab Revolt. This album follows a visit from the south gate and its stone doors through the walls and rooms roofed with basalt slabs, across the courtyard to the mosque, up to Lawrence’s room above the gate and down to the carved stones lying around the fort.