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Muallaqat al-Dayr

Muallaqat al-Dayr

About 14 km from Amman's 1st circle, passing Wadi Seer town in the Western Amman's outskirts, the Iraq al-Amir Street winds its way down gently through the green and fertile Wadi al-Seer.

At the valley floor, left from a gardening center and café, 320 m uphill on a small road, you will reach a staircase that will bring you up to a strange double chamber cut into the rock face, with a narrow entrance door and triangular window openings.

Muallaqat al-Dayr (al-Dayr = the monastery) is an ancient columbarium (dovecote) more than 7 meter high, divided in two chambers. Its interior displays about 800 triangular niches carved into the walls in three floors, thought to have been to accommodate doves for breeding.

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According to Archaeology Professor Randa Kakish, "Raising doves for food, as sacrificial animals, for communication and pleasure or even for magic or oracular prophecies was wide-spread in the ancient world, where man was able to attract wild doves with food and a safe place to nest." In her 2012 essay, Professor Kakish quotes E. Post's observations from his 1886 scientific expedition, where people at al-Dayr called the structure “pharmacy of doves,” a name that alludes to this past usage. The continuous reuse of such caves makes dating their origin difficult, but her analysis of a newly discovered dovecote at 'Ain al-Baida, allow to assume that the site at Iraq al Amir is as old as from the late Iron II period.

Further reading:
Randa Kakish: Evidence for Dove Breeding in the Iron Age: A Newly Discovered Dovecote at ‘Ain al-Baida/‘Amman, University of Jordan, Journals Portal, Volume VI, No.3, 2012

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Location, access:

Muallaqat al-Dayr
Iraq al-Amir
Left from a gardening center and café, 320 m uphill on a small road
Approx. 14 km from Amman's 1st circle
Location on map


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Visual tour through Wadi al-Seer, a fertile valley southwest of Amman, visiting an ancient dovecote, caves, the ruins of Qasr al-Abd, and the Handicraft Village.


See also in Art Destination Jordan:

Web guide for cultural travellers - a wealth of information and photos.

Contemporary art, archaeology, art history, architecture, cultural heritage.

Supported by
Jordan Tourism Board

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