Amman - Jordan

The modern city that is built on the sands of time........

Amman, the capital city of Jordan, is a fascinating city of contrasts, with a unique blend of old and new, ideally situated on a hilly area between the desert and the fertile Jordan Valley. 

In the commercial heart of the city, ultra-modern buildings, hotels, smart restaurants, art galleries and boutiques rub shoulders comfortably with traditional coffee shops and tiny artisans' workshops. Everywhere there is evidence of the city’s much older past.
The downtown area is much older and more traditional with smaller businesses producing and selling everything from fabulous jewellery to everyday household items.

The people of Amman are multicultural, multi-denominational, well-educated and extremely hospitable. They welcome visitors and take pride in showing them around their fascinating and vibrant city. 

Amman  is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the World.  Recent excavations have uncovered homes and towers believed to have been built during the Stone Age with many references to it in the Bible.

Amman was known in the Old Testament as Rabbath-Ammon, the capital of the Ammonites around 1200 BC, it was also referred to as "the City of Waters".

Under the influence of the Roman culture, Philadelphia was reconstructed in typically grand Roman style with colonnaded streets, baths, an Amphitheater, and impressive public buildings.  In the 3rd century BC, the City was renamed Philadelphia (Greek for "The Brotherhood Love") after the Ptolemaic ruler Philadelphus (283-246 BC). 

The City later came under Seleucid as well as Nabataean rule until the Roman General Pompey annexed Syria and made Philadelphia part of the Decapolis League.  Under the influence of the Roman culture, Philadelphia was reconstructed in typically grand Roman style with colonnaded streets, baths, an Amphitheater, and impressive public buildings.

During the Byzantine period, Philadelphia was the seat of a Christian Bishop, and therefore several churches were built.  But As Islam spread northwards from the Arabian Peninsula, the land became part of its domain and its original Semitic name Ammon or Amman was returned to it.

Today Amman has grown rapidly into a modern, thriving metropolis of well over two million people.  It has never rivaled Damascus or Cairo as a grand Islamic city of antiquity. For those arriving from Syria or Egypt it can, depending on your perspective, feel either refreshingly or disappointingly modern and Westernised.

Residents talk openly of two Ammans. Conservative and Islamic in its sympathies, Eastern Amman (which includes downtown) is home to the urbanised poor. And western Amman is a world apart, with leafy residential districts, trendy cafés and bars, and impressive art galleries. It's impossible to gain a full understanding of Amman, or even Jordan, without visiting both areas.