The Late Roman fort at 'Ayn Gharandal, Jordan: interim report on the 2009–2014 field seasons

The site of 'Ayn Gharandal lies ca. 70 km north of the Gulf of Aqaba, ca. 40 km southwest of Petra, and ca. 200 m west of the mouth of Wadi Gharandal on the E edge of the Wadi Arabah (fig. 1). The ruins lie alongside a paved track running east from the Dead Sea highway. The presence of a spring and small oasis at the mouth of the wadi presumably prompted the first human occupation. Ist location controlling an overland pass through the Shara mountain range will have attracted the attention of the Nabataeans and, later, the Roman army, which established an outpost here at the start of the 4th c. A.D.