[2] Its ruins stand in modern-day Jordan in the valley of Wadi Seer, close to the village of Iraq Al-Amir, approximately 17 kilometers west of Amman.

This place is between Arabia and Judea, beyond Jordan, not far from the country of Heshbon.The association of the site with the Tobiads is based on a cave inscription found nearby.

[4] There are two inscriptions in Aramaic script reading "Tobiah", carved into the facades of two rock-cut halls north of the palace and dated to the 4th century BCE or earlier.

[5] According to Josephus, Hyrcanus left Jerusalem after losing a power struggle, and established his residence east of the Jordan, apparently on the ancestral lands of the Tobiad dynasty.

The area was then a border zone between Judea and Arabia and Josephus mentions that Hyrcanus was in constant skirmishes with Arabians, killing and capturing many.

The structure was originally surrounded by a large excavated reflecting pool, leading Josephus to assume that this was a moat and the building a fortress.

However, more recent evidence for the building's original function being as a country pleasure palace has been presented by the Israeli archaeologist Ehud Netzer.

[citation needed]Archaeologists have established that Qasr al-Abd once stood in a much larger estate, which was originally surrounded by a wall and included a park with trees and shrubs.

[citation needed]The ruins of Qasr al-Abd have been partially restored, due to the efforts of a French team directed by Ernest Will and the architect François Larché in collaboration with Fawzi Zayadine of the Jordanian Department of Antiquities.