A short distance north of Jericho, at the edge of the oasis, lie the remains of the complex known as Hisham's Palace — Khirbat al-Mafjar — one of the most spectacular early Islamic sites in the region. Built in the Umayyad period, it combined a residence, a mosque, a courtyard and an enormous bath hall whose scale and decoration far exceed any practical bathing function. From it come the carved stucco figures, the geometric and vegetal panels, and the great stone rosette that has become an emblem of the site. Its masterpiece is the Tree of Life mosaic in the bath's reception chamber: a tree with gazelles grazing peacefully on one side and a lion striking another on the other, a composition of extraordinary quality and lasting interpretative debate. The building appears never to have been completed, and an earthquake brought much of it down. The film treats the complex as a demonstration of what the early Islamic elite made of the classical inheritance — Roman bath planning, Byzantine mosaic craft, and a new decorative language — in the heat and light of the Jordan valley.
