A Museum of Royal Cars, King Abdullah I Mosque, The Citadel and The Roman Theatre
Arriving in Amman
06/11/2019
We touched down in Jordan on time at 11 pm, made our way through the formalities and met K, who would be our driver for the next week. Queen Alia Airport is 30km south of Amman so it was well after midnight before we checked into our hotel east of the city centre.
07/11/2019
Fortunately, we like a middle eastern breakfast - ful, boiled egg, fermented cheese and a sprinkle of chilli – as there was little else apart from toast and jam.
The Royal Automobile Museum, Amman
K arrived on time at 9.30 and drove us east down Zahran Street, one of Amman’s main thoroughfares…
Zahran Street, Amman |
Amman is built on a series of hills – somebody will always claim seven – at a height of 700-850m so moving about always involves going up or down.
Towards the Royal Automobile Museum, Amman |
Amman is in north west Jordan. Thanks to Lonely Planet for the loan of the map |
Lynne and King Hussein's plane, Royal Automobile Museum, Amman |
In the early years Cadillac took its cars on a year-long trip following the caravan routes from Lebanon to Iraq. Unsurprisingly Cadillac become the car of choice for Middle Eastern rulers.
1915 Type 53 Cadillac, Royal Automobile Museum, Amman |
1961 Rolls Royce Phantom V, Royal Automobile Museum, Amman |
1953 Rolls Royce Phantom IV with Hooper, Royal Automobile Musuem, Amman |
1968 Rolls Royce Silver Shadow, Royal Automobile Musuem, Amman |
1915 Armoured Rolls Royce Silver Ghost, Royal Automobile Museum, Amman |
King Abdullah I Mosque, Amman
K drove us back largely the way we had come, but this time we approached the centre along Suliman El Nabulsi Street. Luckily a parking space appeared almost outside the King Abdullah I mosque.
Suliman El Nabulsi Street, Amman |
King Abdullah I Mosque, Amman |
Lynne properly dressed for the mosque, Amman |
Inside the prayer hall, King Abdullah I Mosque, Amman |
The dome, King Abdullah I Mosque, Amman |
The call to prayer live, King Abdullah I Mosque, Amman |
Jordan is a Muslim country, but the constitution guarantees freedom of religion. 4% of Jordanians are Christians; the Coptic Patriarchate and Greek Orthodox Cathedral are just over the road.
Coptic, nearer the camera, and Greek Orthodox churches, Amman |
The Amman Citadel
Not far away, the Citadel sits atop Amman’s highest hill (850m). Getting out of the car we immediately noticed the flag on the opposite hillside. ‘Biggest flag in the world,’ K said proudly. More precisely it is the 126.8m flagpole in the grounds of the Raghadan Palace that was the tallest in the world when erected in 2003. A spate of competitive flagpole erecting across the Arab world (compensating for something, gentlemen?) means it now ranks only 7th. Jeddah’s 170m flagpole is currently number 1. The 60m-by-30m flag, though enormous is not among the world’s biggest.
The Raghadan Palace Flag |
Amman claims to be among the world’s oldest continually inhabited cities, but the oldest artefacts come not from the citadel but from what is now the northern suburb of Ain Gahzl. A two-headed plaster and bitumen bust in the citadel museum dates from around 6,500 BCE, in the late stone age and before the development of pottery.
Two-headed stone age plaster and bitumen bust, Amman citadel musuem |
The area was rich in copper, so when some bright spark realised you could make a harder more useful metal by mixing copper with tin, the citadel’s inhabitants were well placed to move into the bronze age.
The built themselves tombs by modifying naturally caves…
Early bronze age rock tomb (ca 2,250 BCE) near the Temple of Hercules, Amman citadel. There is nothing to see inside |
Middle Bronze age pottery, Amman Citadel Museum |
Strange anthropoid pottery coffins from the early iron age, Amman Citadel Museum |
Alexander the Great breezed through in 333 BCE, conquering everything in sight, then breezed off to conquer more, leaving others to do the ruling. After Alexander’s death in 323, these 'others' fought for supremacy and Rabbath-Ammon became part of the Egyptian Kingdom of former Macedonian general Ptolemy I Soter. His son Ptolemy II Philadelphus (ruled 308-246) rebuilt the city, renaming it Philadelphia after himself. Americans like to think their Philadelphia is the city of brotherly love, but Ptolemy’s Philadelphus meant lover of his sister, whom he married in 273. This accorded with ancient Egyptian principles, but shocked the Macedonians. The marriage may well have never been consummated, though that was not true of the brother-sister marriages of later Ptolemies.
Macedonian kings ruled North Africa and Asia from Egypt and Central Turkey in the west to India in the east, but in time came under pressure from the Parthians on one side and the Romans on the other.
Little of Greek origin remains above ground in Philadelphia which became a Roman City in 63 BCE.
The citadel’s most impressive ruin is the Roman Temple of Hercules, built 162 -166 CE.
Temple of Hercules, Amman citadel |
Remains of a statue that might have been of Hercules, Amman Citadel |
The citadel’s Byzantine church was built in the 5th or 6th century.
Byzantine Church, Amman Citadel |
Amman’s Umayyad Palace is entered through a monumental gateway.
Gateway to Umayyad Palace, Amman Citadel |
Dome of gateway to the Umayyad Palace, Amman Citadel |
Umayyad Palace, Amman Citadel |
The most recent major building in the citadel (modern constructions apart) is an Ayyubid Watchtower on the southern edge. The watchtower is small and simple as the city's importance had greatly diminished.
Ayyubid Watchtower, Amman Citadel |
Amman became a minor settlement and later may have been completely deserted. It is in these relatively recent centuries that its claim to be among the world’s oldest continually inhabited cities may founder. Amman was refounded in 1878 by the Ottoman Empire as a home for Circassian Refugees pushed south from the Caucasus by the expansion of Tsarist Russia. By 1890 the population of the new city was only 1,000, so modern Amman is largely a 20th century construct.
Being a city of incomers, Amman has yet to develop its own dialect, but all Jordians speak variants of Levantine Arabic. Amman is written عمان, last year we visited the Kingdom of Oman in southern Arabia which is also written عمان. The slight, though real, difference in the initial vowel sound reflected in the Latin transliteration comes from the difference between Levantine and Omani Arabic.
Downtown Amman and its 6,000 seat Roman theatre built when Antonius Pius was emperor (138-161 CE) can be seen from the citadel.
Downtown is literally ‘down’ but whether it is a downtown district in the American sense is more problematic; it is difficult to pick any area in Amman and say confidently ‘here is the city centre’.
Looking down on the Roman theatre from the Amman Citadel |
Until recently we would have walked into this theatre, looked up at the tiers of seats and immediately climbed to the top. Being a little older and with nothing to prove we only climbed to the top of the lower third.
Amman Roman theatre from the top of the lower tier of seating |
Amman Roman Theatre from the stage. Lynne is still at the top of the lower tier |
The niello bracelets attracted me because I have previously encountered ‘niello’ in crosswords but nowhere else. It is a black mixture of sulphur, silver, copper or lead, used as an inlay on engraved or etched silver. Made locally in the 1920s by Circassian and Armenian silversmiths niello bracelets were mainly worn by Bedouin women.
Niello bracelets, Amman Roman theatre |
Byzantine mosaic, Amman Roamn theatre |
Lunch in Amman
K drove us the short distance up to Rainbow Street, Amman’s main café and dining street and to the restaurant where he was determined we would have lunch, even though it was 3 pm. We were unsure if it was what we wanted, but decided to go with the flow.
We ordered mezzes, but failed to realise that all four dishes were deep fried – or maybe they were all like that. The little parcels of cheese were OK, the bulgur wheat balls were dull, the shards of spicy sausage were overcooked and the falafel, Jordan’s signature dish (or maybe that’s hummus?) had been rolled in sesame seeds before frying and tasted suspiciously of burnt sesame. Our first lunch in Jordan was not a success.
Mezzes, Amman |
The Jerash Incident
It was nearly 4 before we left the restaurant and then the ten-minute drive back to our hotel took well over an hour. Amman seemed gridlocked in all directions, we would have got out and walked but K twisted and turned so much to avoid the jam, including at least one trip the wrong up a one-way street, that we completely lost our bearings.
Finally reaching the hotel we looked on-line for the cause of the problem. We failed, but instead found a report of eight people, including four tourists being stabbed (fortunately none fatally) in Jerash by a disgruntled Palestinian refugee. We were due to visit Jerash tomorrow. An email popped up from our British travel agents informing us of the incident and adding If you… would like to make any change to your programme,.. please discuss… with your guide… I am sure they will… accommodate any changes you wish to make. Immediately after such an incident Jerash would surely be the safest place in the Middle East, so there seemed no reason to panic – we would see what K said tomorrow.
There's nothing very special about a Jordanian traffic jam! |
Snacks in the Bar
After our deep-fried lunch we chose to spend the evening in the hotel bar with salads and a drink. Alcohol is legal in Jordan, if not always easy to find, and the few majority Christian towns in the north are home to an Amstel brewery, the Carakale Microbrewery, several arak distilleries and Jordan’s two wineries. Jordan is expensive and that applies doubly to alcohol. A half-litre of draught beer was 5.50JD (1 Jordanian Dinar = GB£1.10) plus 10% service and 16% sales tax (in large print in the menu) taking it over £7.50.
For the same price we had an arak each – very like Turkish raki and similar to Greek ouzo – good sized measures diluted with the three time the volume of water. The bar was lively, mostly people from the neighbourhood, many arriving in couples and foursomes, the women without headscarves – presumably Christians and also wealthy, no one else could afford to drink there. We enjoyed our salads and a second raki; a good evening but hardly one of great extravagance. It cost nigh on £50.
Jordan
Part 1: Amman
Part 2: Ajloun and Jerash
Part 3: Shobak Castle and the Back Trail to Petra
Part 4: Petra
Part 5: Wadi Rum
Part 3: Shobak Castle and the Back Trail to Petra
Part 4: Petra
Part 5: Wadi Rum
Part 6: Swimming in the Dead Sea
THE END
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