Image Details

Garo Nalbandian

The ruins of Jordan’s Qasr el-Abd water palace glow in the sun after a desert rain. Built in the early second century B.C.E. by a Jerusalem nobleman named Hyrcanus, the palace once “floated” in the middle of a 15-acre pool—as shown in the models. Photographer Garo Nalbandian shot this photograph before the palace was partially restored by a French team from 1979 to 1985; in November 1998 he returned to the site to capture the elegant building as it stands today (see photo of southwest view of Jordan’s Qasr el-Abd water palace).