Iraq el-Amir

Drawing of Cave No. 13 (Claude Conder).

Iraq el-Amir عراق الأمير ("Princely Caves") is an archaeological site in Jordan . These are caves that were developed as places of refuge in ancient times . The caves are in Wadi es-Sir south of the road. Today they are used as goat stalls.

description

Two rows of caves were built by human hands in the steep rock face. The caves in the upper row are connected to one another, so that an approximately 300 m long gallery has been created here.

In the lower row, there is a cave that is particularly noticeable because it was equipped with a profiled door frame. To the right of the entrance the Aramaic writing טוביה Tobia was carved. The script used can be dated to the Persian period (5th to 4th century BC). The same lettering can be found on the cave adjacent to the left.

The Tobiads

There may be a relationship between this refuge and several people named Tobia mentioned in literary sources who were resident in this region:

Tobia, Nehemiah's political opponent (mentioned several times in the book of Nehemiah, chapters 2 and 3). At the time of the great king Artaxerxes I, he was a high-ranking Persian official.
Tobia, named in the Zenon archives as the owner of a large estate and game reserve.
Tobia, according to Josephus brother of the tax collector Hyrkan, who had a palace called Tyros (probably identical to Qasr el-Abd ) built under Ptolemy IV (221 to 204 BC ).