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(located 60 km NE of Hama) Completed in the last full year of Justinian's reign (564), Qasr Ibn Wardan was in architectural terms perhaps the most remarkable of these defensive creations, though it lacks the sheer size and stolidity of the more distinctly fortress-like cities elsewhere. The overall design is more graceful and flamboyant, partly reflecting in design and use of materials the high art of the capital at the time, rather than the more prosaic provincial models common in Syria.
The complex of palace/church/military barracks on the edge of the great Syrian desert were as much intended to control the monadic Arab population of the desret zone as meet the more strategic threat from Persia.The scale of the buildings and their defences is thus considerably smaller than in the fortresses along the Euphrates and its hinterland. This allowed for greater freedom of expression, elegance of style and lightness of touch. The results are still obvious in this extraordinary complex, with its broad -banded brick and stonework silhouetted against the harsh desert landscape.
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