It is located about 30-40 km from Wadi Rum towards Ma'an, but on the other side of the highway. It was founded by the Nabataeans, and survived only into the Byzantine era. Then it was Muslim conquests and the Abbasid family maintained a large house and a mosque here. And there are even a ruins of Roman fort are there, but not so much left, of course.
There it was also a strange, large swimming pool, approximately 17 meters by 27 meters in size, and 1.5 meters deep. (This would hold approximately 688.5 cubic meters of water).
The pool was fed by a small aqueduct on the north end (14 x
10 cm), and paralleled by two other small aqueducts.
"Dan Gibson, a Middle Eastern historian, explained his reasons for believing this was an ancient swimming pool. Perhaps the oldest of it's kind in the world. After having surveyed dozens of Nabataean cisterns and pools, Gibson explained that all Nabataean cisterns were deep, narrow and covered. This was to preserve water. This pool, on the hand, is shallow, wide and open, with steps. To all intents and purposes it does appear to be a swimming pool. Gibson is working on a paper that examines this pool and several others in Nabataea, to explain his theory of why the Nabataeans would be attracted to building swimming pools in the middle of the desert."
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