Amman

Amman (rear RTL عمان, `Ammân ), is the capital of the Jordan since 1921. At the time Roman, it was called Philadelphia .

It is a center Industrie L and manufacturer.

Population (2005): 2.100.000 inhabitants.

Geography

Amman is in an undulating zone in the North-West of the Jordan. The city was in the beginning is built on seven hills (what was worth the nickname of to him Rome of the Middle East ), but it now extends on 19 hills (each one known under the name jabel or " montagne"). The principal districts of Amman draw their names from the hills on the slopes of which they lean. The capital still shelters camps of Palestinians, created in 1948 and 1967 consequently with the israélo-Palestinian Conflit.

History

Tourism

Tourism in Amman concentrates on the old districts of the low city (English downtown), which is around the old man Souk (a very animated market) and mosque of king Hussein, oldest of the city.

Constructions on the hill of the citadel of Amman, known under the name Jabal el Qala date from the Roman epochs and Byzantines, with later additions of the beginnings of the era of Islam. Excavations in the zones North and Is citadel put at the day of the remainders which can go back to the Bronze Age. The citadel shelters also the temple of Hercules which would have been built under the reign of the Marc-Aurèle Roman Emperor.

Behind the site of the old forum, is a the Roman theater, largest of Jordan, with 6.000 places. It would have been built between 138 and 161 after J-C by the emperor Antoninus Pius; he leans with the blank of a hill, and is always used for spectacles.

Amman has also some of most impressive the Mosquée S of the Middle East. Among most recent, the enormous mosque of the king Abdullah I, built between 1982 and 1989. It is capped with a splendid dome in blue mosaic, under which 3.000 faithful can be collected.

Tourist sites of the surroundings

  • the site of baptism (Arabic Al-Maghtas) on the the Jordan where Jesus was baptized by Saint Jean Baptiste.
  • the Mount Nebo, where Moïse would be deceased after having foreseen the promised land
  • the shores of the Dead Sea
  • Jerash, one of the old Roman cities the best preserved
  • Petra, halfway of the road leading to the seaside resort of Aqaba, is one of the historical places most famous for their beauty

Photograph gallery

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