Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
NAVIGATING AMMAN
Like Rome, Amman was originally founded on seven major hills, but today it spreads across more than 20. It's not
really a city to explore on foot, apart from the downtown area - known by locals as
il-balad
. A straight, flat road is
almost unheard of so the only way to make any sense of Amman in a short time is to pick out the major landmarks
on the hills (jebels).
The main hill is Jebel Amman, home to several embassies, a few hotels and trendy restaurants. The traffic round-
abouts in this central area (some now replaced with tunnels and major intersections) are numbered west of down-
town from 1st Circle to 8th Circle. If you're travelling in a taxi, street names will mean little so ask for the nearest
'circle' and walk from there, or give the driver a nearby landmark (like an embassy or hotel).
Jebel al-Hussein, northwest of downtown, is notable for the Housing Bank Centre; its mossy, terraced facade
sticks out a mile. This also marks the start of the upmarket Shmeisani area, which stretches out to the north as far as
the leafy Sports City. It has plenty of restaurants, shops, top-end hotels and a few nightclubs. Another trendy and af-
fluent area is Abdoun, a few hills south of Shmeisani and the location of supercool cafes and several embassies.
Closer to downtown is the grittier Abdali area, from where buses leave for Syria. A few budget hotels are in the
area. It can be readily identified by the distinctive blue dome of the King Abdullah Mosque.
In the far west is swanky Sweifieh, a booming shopping area. Further out, the city's outlying towns, suburbs and
refugee camps have now pretty much merged into one sprawling urban area.
The maps in this guidebook should be sufficient for most casual visitors. If you plan to stay for some time, or in-
tend to visit places out of the centre, the
Maps of Jordan, Amman and Aqaba
published by Luma Khalaf is worth
picking up. It shows just about every street in the city, and pinpoints embassies and other landmarks, though it
doesn't cover the southern or eastern suburbs. It's available from most bookshops.
Roman Theatre
(admission incl Folklore Museum & Museum of Popular Traditions JD1; 8am-4pm
Sat-Thu & 9am-4pm Fri Oct-Mar, 8am-7pm Apr-Sep)
This magnificently restored amphi-
theatre is the most obvious and impressive remnant of Roman Philadelphia, and is the
highlight of Amman for most foreign visitors. The theatre itself is cut into the northern
side of a hill that once served as a necropolis and has a seating capacity of 6000. It was
built on three tiers: the rulers, of course, sat closest to the action, the military secured the
middle section, and the general public perched and squinted from the top rows.
The theatre was probably built in the 2nd century AD during the reign of Antoninus Pi-
us (AD 138-61). Theatres often had religious significance, and the small shrine above the
top row of seats once housed a statue of the goddess Athena (now in the National Archae-
ological Museum), who was prominent in the religious life of the city.
ROMAN AMPHITHEATRE
