Overview

The modern port-city of Aqaba, Jordan, is the home of several settlements in antiquity, beginning at least in the Chalcolithic period, each built on a different site. Three settlements are noticeably visible today: the Roman-Byzantine town of Aila; the early Islamic settlement of Ayla (7th through 12th centuries); and the Aqaba castle (13th through 19th centuries). Located at the northern end of the Gulf of Aqaba, the eastern arm of the Red Sea, these settlements sat along major land and sea trade routes. By sea, Aqaba has access to Egypt, the coast of Africa, Arabia, and India. By land, Aqaba is the gateway from Arabia in the south to the major settlements and ports in the north, such as Gaza and Damascus.

Roman-Byzantine Aila was probably founded as a Nabatean settlement. When the Nabatean kingdom was annexed by the Romans in 106 CE, Aila became the southern terminus of the Via Nova Trajana, which ran from Syria to the Red Sea. Aila also became the home of the Legio X Fretensis, which was transferred from Jerusalem around 300 CE, though it is unknown where the troops were garrisoned.

Roman-Byzantine Aila was excavated by S. Thomas Parker of North Carolina State University, beginning in 1994. Numerous mudbrick buildings and parts of the Byzantine stone wall have been uncovered. One monumental mudbrick building, dating to the end of the Late Roman period, has been identified as an early church based on both architecture and the material remains found in the building. If its interpretation as a church is accepted, it is perhaps one of the oldest surviving church buildings, preceding the churches built by Constantine in Jerusalem and elsewhere.

Islamic Ayla was founded to the south of the Roman-Byzantine city, perhaps under ‘Uthman ibn ‘Affan (c. 650 CE). It is a rectangular city, 165 m x 140 m, with four gates, one in the middle of each wall, connected by axial streets that divide the city into quarters. In the center of the city, at the junction of the axial streets, sat a large tetrapylon (or pavilion), which was eventually converted into a residence during the Late Abbasid or Fatimid Period, perhaps for the governor. In the northeastern quarter of the city, a large congregational mosque was uncovered inside the Syrian gate. Built with an open courtyard, it as a peristyle around three walls and a hypostyle hall along the southwestern wall, where the mihrab was located. Today, a wadi cuts through the south and eastern part of the city, which destroyed the eastern end of the mosque. The Islamic city was excavated by Donald Whitcomb of the University of Chicago from 1986 through 1993.

The archaeological strata uncovered at the site, as illustrated in the site plan, date to the following periods:

	Early Islamic Period
	Byzantine Period
	Late Roman Period