Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
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The move to Aqaba was not until the following day, so we took the opportunity to visit the
town of Salt and have a look at the surrounding area, including several Christian enclaves.
Salt is an ancient agricultural town on the old main highway leading from Amman to Jerus-
alem. Built in the crook of three hills, close to the Jordan River valley, it is believed to have
been built by the Macedonian army during the reign of Alexander the Great.
The town has had a chequered history, with the Mongols destroying, the Mamluks rebuilding
and the Ottomans establishing it as a regional capital. It was again destroyed and rebuilt in
1830, with its fortunes improving in the late 19
th
Century when it became an important trad-
ing centre. It was during this period that it expanded from a peasant village into a town with
numerous architecturally elegant buildings. Many of them still standing today.
When Prince Abdullah rose to power it appeared that Salt would be chosen as the capital
of the new kingdom. It was the primary staging area for most of the country's industry and
commerce, it was the largest city in TransJordan and had the only high school. Unfortu-
nately, or possibly fortunately depending on your point of view, the Prince fell out with the
leading citizens and instead he made Amman the capital, even though it had a considerably
smaller population.
The hotel organised a driver at a cost of 75 JD for the round trip. While waiting in the foyer
for the driver I ran into some old family friends who had arrived the previous night. They
had just completed a tour through Jordan before setting off to Cairo for a trip through Egypt.
We each knew the other would be in the area about the same time, but it was still a coincid-
ental encounter.
The road to Salt passed through a group of relatively new suburbs before entering the coun-
tryside. The houses were modern and comprised three to four story apartment blocks. There
was a lot of road work under way and we passed the very large and magnificent King Hus-
sein mosque that sat in the middle of parkland on a prominent hill.
