Amman Jordan
My free day in Amman didn't go as originally planned. I neglected to check the calendar and it was Eid, the last day of Ramadan. It's a big holiday, so most things were closed, including the Jordan Museum. The town was very quiet in the morning but in the evening it was very busy. On the last day of fasting, at sundown, the restaurants and cafes were crowded.
The Roman and Arab Citadel is located directly above my hotel. It was open, so I headed up there. There are stairways up the hill, but some only go to private houses and Google Maps didn't seem to understand them, so my route up took a long way, mostly up the streets, except for a promising stair that took me part of the way up.
Jordan is one of the oldest cities in the world, with artifacts dating from 8,000 BC. The Citadel, at the high point, has been occupied for most of that time. During the iron age it was the capital of the Ammonite kingdom and was known as Rabat Aman. In the 3rd Century BC, it was conquered by Ptolemy II Philadelphus, Pharaoh of Egypt. He renamed it Philadelphia, although it's not the famous Philadelphia, that one is in Turkey. During Roman rule, it was one of the 10 cities of the Decapolis. In the 7th Century the Arabs conquered it from the Byzantines and restored the name Amman. Starting in the Middle Ages the city varied from prosperous to almost abandoned. From the 1500s to 1878 it was only a small village. At that time the Ottoman Empire made it a local capital and it grew swiftly from a population of a few thousand to over 4 million.
Before heading up I stopped off at the Roman Theater across the street. It's built into the valley wall and it is in good enough shape that it is still used.
Next to it is a small Roman theater. It probably originally had a roof and have may have been used as a parliament.
Then it was up the hill. The Citadel has a 360 view of the surrounding part of Amman. This is just halfway around!
The Theater was directly below and my hotel is on the left edge of the photo.
There are the typical Roman temples, but nothing from earlier periods. The Romans clearly cleaned off the hilltop and started fresh on their construction.
This is believed to be a temple to Hercules based on the parts of a huge statue nearby.
While the new museum in the valley was closed the smaller one in the site was open and had the most interesting things, some of the oldest human statues in the world from 8,000 BC.
The Arabs also built here, including a large palace. Only the entry hall remains standing, but it is an impressive foyer.
There are a huge number of stray cats in Amman. As the lady a the front desk of the hotel said, they are pretty quiet until February then they are very noisy and then there are new kittens in the spring. These two were just outside the door of the hotel and looked healthier than most.
In the markets, I saw a lot of these fruits that I didn't recognize.
Here they are called azkadenya, but we know them as loquats. They are very sweet, similar to a very ripe pear. They are also as tender as a very ripe pear, so wouldn't travel well. I won't look for them in Madison any time soon.
Today I'm checking out of my hotel and transferring to the hotel for the first night of the group tour. Tomorrow we head right out to the Dana Biosphere Reserve, where the hiking begins.
