Amman History
Inhabited during the Paleolithic (the first settlement dates back to 15,000 to 10,000 BC), the Neolithic and Caleolithic, Amman Jordan was born as an urban center during the Bronze Age, as proved by some evidences found on the acropolis of the Citadel. Here there was the Biblical Rabbath Ammon, the great city of the Ammonites, whose ancestors, according to Genesis, were Lot and his youngest. Ammon, which was settled during the Jews’ exodus to Palestine in the north of nowadays Wadi Zarka, clashed repeatedly with the Israelites. They stormed Rabbath Ammon, but in the IX century BC, the Ammonites regained their independence. The expansion of the Assyrians to the Nile’s valley constituted a new threat to the Ammonite people, who in 733 BC had to bend to the protection of a governor. After the Assyrians, it was the turn of the Medes and Babylonians who, at the time of Nebuchadnezzar, ended the reign of Ammon,. Around the middle of the V century BC, the area between Amman and the Jordan’s river was led by Tobias the Ammonite, member of Tobiades’s family that was ruling during the III century BC on behalf of the Ptolemies of Egypt. It was Ptolemy Philadelphus (285-246 BC) to rebuild the city and give it the name of “Philadelphia”. In 30 BC under the Romans’ dominance (63 BC) Philadelphia was included in the Decapolis, and was placed under the Herod’s the Great control. The annexation of the Nabataean kingdom by the Emperor Trajan (106 AD) and his own willingness to build the Via Nova Traiana, (111-114 AD), transformed Philadelphia into a prosperous caravan city, which the Roman administration enriched of many monuments. It is so that started the golden age of the city. Probably, under the Byzantines, Philadelphia was a property of Ghassanids’, an Arab tribe ally of the Christian Byzantines in the fight against the Persians. In 638 Muslim Arabs, took possession of the city, which was later incorporated in the Umayyad Empire with the name of the Ammon.
Becoming the capital of the province of al-Balqa, Ammon was enriched with the governor’s palace, whose ruins are still visible on the Citadel. The arrival of the Abbasids moved the Empire’s capital from Damascus to Baghdad. This power’s switch caused the slow decline of Amman that at last, was abandoned, in according to the statements by the Arab geographer Abu al-Pida, in the thirteenth century. Since then, the city has remained almost uninhabited until 1880, when the Ottomans settled there the Circassians, a Caucasian Muslim population expelled from Russia in 1864-65. The revival of the ancient Rabbath Ammon was established in March of 1921, when the Emir Amman Jordan.
Amman City Tour
The best way to know a city it is to begin a visit to the place where it was born: the Citadel, easily reached by public transportation. On the site rich of antiquities dating back to the Bronze and Iron Ages, there is the Temple of Hercules, made in honor of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Looking over the lower city, it shows the Roman theater on the hill of Ashrafiyah where stands the Mosque of Abu Darwish. Then towards Raghadan, the current royal residence, the visit of the Citadel continues over the road, revealing the remains of a Byzantine church. Continuing on the hill, it is viewed the al-Qasr, an Umayyad home, probably used for administrative ambits, and recently undergone to restoration. Near the entrance on the right side there is a large tank. Back on the road towards the temple of Hercules, it continues to the Archaeological Museum which houses interesting artifacts from different historical ages.
After this touring part, it proceeds down to the lower city: the ancient Greek-roman center of Philadelphia. It homes a very nice theater, and two museums: the Museum of Folklore and the Museum of Popular Traditions. Nearby, on the same square that once housed the Forum, there is the Odeon, recently renovated, and used for musical events. On the left of the theater stands the Nymphaeum, veiled by modern buildings. A little further on, there is al-Hussein mosque. In this commercial area, beats the heart of the Arab capital, which comes alive in all kinds of shops, stalls of vegetables and gold’s souk.
Notwithstanding the anonymity of modern Amman, nevertheless it reveals a pleasant glimpse, with those white buildings scattering along the expressways roads. However, its modernisms it doesn’t lack of the past’s traces, as like as the Ammonite Tower, located next to the Department of the Jordan’s Antiquities (between the III and IV circles). The contemporaneous Amman is appreciated mostly for its cultural activities and dynamic business more than its archaeological treasures. Still worth a visit: the beautiful mosque of al-Malik Abdullah completed in 1990 and located in the district of Jabal al-Waybdah. Nearby there is an Islamic Museum, too. Important in the Community are The Sport City, a multipurpose sports center opened in 1971 and the Royal Cultural Centre that undertake numerous sports and cultural initiatives. It is interesting also the collection of prehistoric artifacts kept in the Archaeological Museum of the Jordan University, close to the National Anthropological Museum of Folklore.
Amman The Citadel
From atop of Jebel al-Qalah (so called the Citadel in Arabic), it enjoys a full view of the city. This area was the location of the acropolis, settled aside on a rocky cliff, once surrounded by walls with towers, built in different historical periods. Traces of the ancient walls (Roman age) can be seen already, along the road that leads up to the site. Those relics comprehends a Roman temple dedicated to Hercules (II century AD), a Byzantine church and a palace of the Umayyad era,. Here towards north-east, it has brought to light the remains of fortifications dating back to Middle Bronze, Iron Age, and Hellenistic period.
On the left of the road that goes to the Archaeological Museum, it shows the remains of the columns made up the temple of Hercules, built in honor of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius (161-180 AD) built on the place of a pre-existing temple of ammonite goddess Melkom.
In the temple, which had a structure of tetra style type (4 columns in front) been kept the statue in marble, dedicated to Hercules. It was a monumental figure that was up to 9 mt. high. A rectangular temenos was connecting directly the west side of the temple with the Forum and the other structures of the lower city at the foot of the acropolis, which fell by a monumental stairway. About this staircase, there are any trace, but it is supposed that it was starting from the Propylaeum at north of Cardo Maximus and ending up near the walls of the acropolis.
Temple of Hercules – Amman
Nearby the Temple it recognizes the remains of one of the fortification’s towers of Islamic era, built with the material took from the temple itself. Here there is a panoramic terrace looking over the ancient center of the city, with its Roman Theater, the Odeon, the Hashemite’ square and the ancient forum’s square. Opposite, on the hill of Ashrafiyah it stands the beautiful construction of the white and black mosque: Abu Darwish’. On the eastern side of the Citadel there is a hill where is located the Raghadan Palace, the current royal residence; it is surrounded by a large park with the Basman Palace. There is also the tomb of King Abdullah I, founder of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. On the opposite side of the road (on the right, coming from the city) there are the remains of a VI century Byzantine church. Open to view are the apse and the columns with beautiful Corinthian capitals. Further east, on a lower terrace, were found remains of the Iron Age as the four-faced heads of the seventh century BC, preserved in the Archaeological Museum. Hill’s excavation brought to light also remains of the Hellenistic and Roman times, while more at the bottom, on the southern slope of the acropolis, it was carved in the rock the tomb of Ammindab, royal minister of Rabbath Ammon (VII century BC).
Proceeding beyond the Byzantine church it can be reached the al-Qasr, recently renovated, and flanked on the right by a large circular tank of Roman ages, used for collecting rainy water from the roof. The building belonged to a large complex and after the discovery of a coin, it was attributed to the late Umayyad period (720-750). Built on a Roman temenos, the building was used both as governor’s residence (or emir, that Prince) and as an administrative center, acting in some way as a City Hall (Dar al-Imarah). On the south side it opens the monumental door that was the main entrance to the complex. It enters into a first courtyard from where it has access the great vestibule (a waiting room or Audience’s hall); it has a Greek cross shape surrounded by a belt of 25 square meters per side, with four rooms that occupy the space between the arms. Noteworthy are: the vaulted ceiling, the large arches and the semi-domes, but mostly impressive are the embellishment of the central area, made with carved stones and rows of small blind arches in stucco, beautifully decorated and supported by pairs of half columns.