Qasr Ibn Wardan’s black and yellow ruins stand 100m from the road. The isolated location is explained by its purpose as a defensive site. It is one of many fortifications erected by the Emperor Justinian to protect the frontiers of Byzantium. Of the original fortress built in 564, only the palace and the church remain. The style and techniques employed were derived directly from what was in use at Constantinople, in marked contrast to the dead cities’ architecture of the same period.