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History |
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Sights in Amman |
Amman has 1.6 million inhabitants and is situated in the North of Jordan. The city was built at 7 hills. 1950 she became capital city of Jordan. Amman is a trading centre of the whole kingdom and a crossing point of trade routes.
After the decay of the greek empire of Alexander the Great built the Seleukid Ptolemaios II Philadelphios between 285 and 246 B. C. on the Citadel hill the first cities, but nothing of it is still there. Only the name remaied: Philadelphia.
Under the roman conqueror Pompeius Philadelphia joined the Dekapolis, a bond between cities. In the 1st century A. D. the classic buildings around the roman theatre were built, and the capital city of Jordan is still proud of them. After the parting of the roman empire bishops lived in Philadelphia, but more and more it was called Amman and since it was conquered by the prophet's islamic troops in the year 637 it remained as the only name. In the following years the city becomes less important and decays.
In 1878 the turkish gouvernment settles moslemic Tscherkessen from the russian empire here and chooses Amman as location of this changing of people. After the victory against the Turkish of british and arabic troops Amman becomes capital of the new transjordan Emirat, and when the British withdrawed from the chaos in the east after WW2, King Abdullah declared Amman to be capital of the hashemit kingdom of Jordan during the arabic-israelic war. To this Kingdom also belonged the West Bank.
Earthquakes changed the cityscape, so that the rich inhabitants exchanged their old buildings made of wood or loam to buildings made of stone and now settled on hills.
Amman is centre of communications and a spot for international Meetings.
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Roman Theatre | |
King Abdullah - Mosque | |||
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Hill of the Citadel | |
The hills of Ammans |
It was built in the 2nd century under greek-roman superiority and showed plays and animal fights. It is build into the hill, has 44 rows, 6000 seats and a high stage. Because of his excellent acoustic there are even plays nowadays, at present it is renovated.
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| Marc Aurel's temple |
The Romans built defences at "Tebel al-Quala'a". Now it is mostly a field of ruins. A sight are the 3 parts of the columns of Marc Aurel's temple, once called a holy place of Hercules, but that is wrong.
The Cistern, in the north of the city, is still visible. She was cut and banged out of the stone. The Citadel is now renovatet and they try to put roof on it again. What it was once is not yet clear (Church, Mosque, Palace). In the main building you can still see parts of the mosaicfloor.
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| Byzantinic Church |
Parts of this site were overbuild by an byzantinic Church. The row of columns between Citadel and Main Building are also still there.
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| Detail of the Abdullah - Moschee |
It is the largest Mosque Ammans and was built in 1989 by King Hussein to honour his grandfather. The large roof reminds of the "Rockdome", because it stretches atop the central ship without any columns. There are also Minaretts and a praying room for women.
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| Praying room for men |
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| View from the hill of the Citadel |
On the mostly east one there is the palace of the king, but it cannot be visited. The next hill is the Hill of the Citadel (Jabal al-Quala'a), on the opposite there is a favourite living-space and the roman theatre(Jabal al-Jaufa). The "higher" districts are at Jabal al-Amman, where embassies, hotels and ministries are. On the north, on Jabal al-Hussein, there is the King Abdullah Mosque. Amman itself is worth a journey.
