Umm el-Jimal is located in the north Jordanian desert on the southern edge of a basalt plateau created by prehistoric volcanic eruptions. The region is known as the Hauran , a land that slopes down gradually from the Jebel el-Arab in Syria. The approach to the city is a dramatic experience. As its skyline emerges from the stark plain, it appears first as a living city, then as a fire-bombed ghost town, and finally as the collection of amazingly wellpreserved ancient ruins that it really is. Inside the city, the visitor is plunged into a world of eerie beauty.
Walls run in every direction without apparent plan or order.
Neatly stacked courses of stone grow out of the mad confusion of tumbled upper stories. The deep grey of basalt everywhere gives a somber and cool sense of shadow despite the blazing desert sun. Here and there, pinnacles of wall reach up three stories high, their fingers of cantilevered stone silhouetted against the cloudless sky, defying gravity. Doorways and alleys lead from room to room, building to building, through more stone, more walls. This city closes you in, swallows you up.