page_title: Qasr al-Banat
section_title: Style
hierarchical_section_title: Qasr al-Banat / Style
caption_attribution_description: English: Raqqa,Syria, Qasr al-Banat from northwest Deutsch: Raqqa, Syrien, Qasr al-Banat von Nordwesten العربية: قصر البنات من الجهة الشمالية الغربية في الرقة - سوريا
context_page_description: Qasr al-Banat, Girls castle or Palace of the Ladies, are a set of brick ruins of a residence dating from 12th century in the Syrian city of Raqqa.
context_section_description: The building is composed of various vaulted halls that lead to a central courtyard in Ayyubid ornamental form. The building's construction is of Iranian origin and was very rare in 12th Century Syria. The well under Nur ad-Din in Damascus displays a similar form, which was widespread in Iran in mosques, palaces and sarays, in the center of their complexes.
  The northern main hall fills the entire width of the courtyard divided into a three aisles. Surrounding it are a total of 41 irregular rooms that are not symmetrical. From 1977 to 1982 Kassem Toueir excavated and rebuilt the site for the Syrian Department of Antiquities. The walls and arches now visible are mainly reconstructed from newly fired bricks. One original diagonal wall segment remains, with a three-storey stucco, where the various remains of the past are superimposed on the modern, with some ancient Muqarnas and stepped arched niches still recognisable. When Friedrich Sarre and Ernst Herzfeld visited the site in 1907, followed by Gertrude Bell in 1910, they found this part of the building as a single upright on an otherwise flat ruin.
  The area is fenced and is normally closed, but visible from all sides.
caption: Reconstruction with newly fired bricks. Part of original wall in center. View from the northwest.
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