Muallaqat al-Dayr archaeological site in Jordan
220Muallaqat al Dayr archaeological site in Jordan. Muallaqat al-Dayr (al-Dayr mean monastery). Located about 14 km from Amman's 1st circle, passing Wadi Seer town in the Western Amman's outskirts. At the valley floor, left from a gardening center and café, 320 m uphill on a small road, 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 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.
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 (this is official information !).
Similar triangular niches in a columbarium (dovecote) - I saw in Israel (in ancient land of Canaan tribes).
The question is, is this structure a “columbarium”? or the so-called “pigeons holes”? - this is a very big and complex question. Although there is no doubt that people could indeed use at least some of these structures later as columbariums or dovecotes... But this is such a complex and inconvenient form - that everything is a very big question.