Amman City

When you were in other country, you will be amazed even those simple things you saw.

Amman is the capital city and the most populous city  in Jordan. In history it is name “Philadelphia” by a Macedonian ruler. It is considered to be among the most liberal and westernized Arab cities.

“I will drop you in the hotel!” from Jerash to Amman, Reef drove us to the hotel. It was already evening when we reached Red Rose. My friends took some shower I didn’t, though I smelled little of a sheep I hugged on our way to Amman. Haha! We still went to Amman city to check ‘Amman Citadel’, ‘Roman Theatre’ and to the market to buy some souvenirs or local things before we took rest.

Unfortunately, Amman Citadel that time was already closed, so what we did? Viewing these views a little while outside the Citadel’s gate and gazing the sunset rays and the big Jordan flag!

“Hi! Welcome to Jordan! Do you need a ride? I’ll show you the city of Amman, Roman Theatre and a lot more!” a taxi driver came near us. Unfortunately, I forgot his name! He was so bubbly, he toured us around their city.

At first, because I’m a little bit hard for that kind of offer I told him “Nope.” I went far from him towards the gate of Amman Citadel – checked the inside view. I’m so interested to see nearer the big hand of Hercules there, but the gate was close and for another day we had schedule to be followed. Maybe to visit and see it by next time. My friends were kind to him, they talked, and they agreed and we started our tour!

It was past seven at night when we were inside the taxi with this driver stranger to us. We listen to his story and sometimes asked questions. Amman is a big city, a lot of people, a lot of houses and commercial buildings (just what a city looked like) as we drove by. Roman Theatre in Amman of course was our goal to see, so he drove us there. 

I love history, I love classic and I love old structures! Roman Theatre can seats of about 6,000 people. Same with Citadel it was not also available for visit – it was closed. They are open only during day time. Because it was closed, before we reached there our driver dropped us in some part of Amman where we can see the entire Roman Theatre. It was beautiful!

 

“Nothing ever becomes real ‘til it is experienced.” – John Keats.

I love this quote and it is true. To experience the reality of a thing that time I had a chance to hug this column outside the theatre! Great experience isn’t it? I had an encounter with this column – we had fallen in love that time! 🙂

Again, imagined the people who made it, imagined the hard works of those workers! Indeed, I imagined and I lived with them in a short time in my thoughts when I’m there.

We went to a mosque in Amman – it was just a small mosque and outside of it there’s a kid’s playground. We didn’t went inside the mosque, we just stop for few minutes there, took some photos and met those kids at the park. We enjoyed with them – they were great kids.

We end our journey in Amman after we checked and bought few souvenirs in Amman market. We separated our ways by two’s. Two of us went in the hotel earlier about 10pm than the other two. They still did roamed around the market – which I missed I didn’t. I missed to see and meet with the locals at the market. Well, there are still another time. 🙂 Jordan is still in my mind to visit again, meet locals and explore more historic sites – there are still a lot of historical things to discover.

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These are some of historic sites can be found in Amman (which was only the Roman Theatre, part of the market we had visited and a ride to the city we did) :

• Temple of Hercules – it was built by the governor that time of the Province of Arabia (AD 162-166) named Geminius Marcianus. You can see there the hand of Hercules carved out of stones.
• Amman Citadel – where you can find Citadel ruins, Temple of Hercules, Hand of Hercules, Umayyad Palace and Umayyad water cistern.
• Raghadan Flagpole – a 126.8-metre (416 ft) tall flagpole in Amman, Jordan.
• Roman Theatre –  can cater people of 6,000-seats, a 2nd-century Roman theatre. It is the famous landmark in Amman.
• King Abdullah I Mosque – this is the blue mosque as they say and was built between 1982 and 1989.
• Abdoun Bridge – the only cable-stayed bridge in Jordan.
• Umayyad Palace – it is ruined, known as the “kiosk” or “monumental gateway” built during the first half of the 8th century.
• Ottoman Hejaz Railway station – a narrow gauge railway, ran from Damascus to Medina, through the Hejaz region of Saudi Arabia, with a branch line to Haifa on the Mediterranean Sea.

For our 3 days visit itinerary to Jordan click here: A Trip to Jordan

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*References and information sources – Wikipedia