Amman - Jordan - page 130

Begin at the hilltop Citadel . The pillars of the Temple of Hercules is the best place to gain a sense of Am-
man's ancient Philadelphian roots and to survey how the city has spread beyond the original seven hills.
Follow Al-Qalat St round the edge of the Citadel walls. A flight of steps (by a school with a flag) leads down to
Salah bin Al-Akwa St; this is the shortcut locals take to reach downtown. A viewpoint to the right offers great
views of the Roman amphitheatre. A further flight of stairs leads steeply downtown, past the Amman Panorama Art
Gallery - a cooperative of four Jordanian artists.
Head gingerly across the busy main road at the bottom (Hashemi St), cross the newly reconstructed Hashemite
Sq, and climb the hill to the left of the theatre. The coffeehouse here, Hail Restaurant & Café , is a popular
spot for nagileh -smoking locals, especially at night. Take in the view of the Citadel and the hotchpotch of facades
that line the main road, most of which date from the mid-19th to the mid-20th centuries. Follow the stairs in front of
the coffeehouse and pass by the souvenir shops en route to the theatre complex.
The small building on your right is the Roman Odeon , a beautiful little amphitheatre still used for occasional
performances. It is somewhat overshadowed, however, by the neighbouring Theatre , which seems to extend in-
definitely up the hillside. Walk between the Theatre and the Roman columns, all that remains of the forum ; the
newly rebuilt plaza here provides space for the traditional evening stroll beloved by Ammanites. Pick up a map
from the tourist information office before lunging into the heart of downtown. On the pavements around this
area are Iraqi street vendors selling souvenir coins from the Saddam Hussein era; they're usually happy to invite
conversation about their recent immigration to Jordan.
Cross the road onto Hashemi St, passing nut shops, perfumeries and a store selling mosque accessories such as
brass crescents for minaret tops. Turn left at the traffic lights and you'll come to the Nymphaeum . It takes ima-
gination to resurrect this Roman fountain complex from the remaining ruins and even more imagination to picture
the stream that ran nearby until recently and which now flows under the road.
Pluck up courage and dive into the fruit and vegetable souq opposite. If you can find a space in which to
stand unjostled by the throngs of shoppers, then close your eyes and just listen to the calls of the vendors. You don't
have to speak Arabic to understand the bargains they are professing, interlaced with abuse for truculent customers.
It's possible to travel the Middle East in this part of the souq as you pass sticky mounds of Saudi dates, Iranian
pistachios and Syrian olives. Best of all are the bulging stalls of Jordanian cauliflowers, irregular-sized cabbages
and organic carrots, reminders that not everywhere in the world is obsessed with regulation size and colour.
Turn left at the yellow shop, passing flat-bread bakeries, and then right, through the hardware souq of alu-
minium kettles and giant ladles. Turn right into Petra St (spelt 'Betra' - there's no distinction between 'p's and 'b's
in Arabic) and take a sniff: the gorgeous aroma of spice-grinding and coffee-roasting is almost better than the fla-
vour. On either side of the road are traditional Arabic medicine stalls , recognisable by the dangling dried allig-
ators, trays of starfish and drawers of herbs and henna. You can buy mascara from here - traditionally used by both
men and women among the Bedouin and around babies' eyes to keep the evil eye at bay.
A right turn onto Quraysh St takes you past a tiny keffiyah shop in a converted stairwell and brings you, four
shops later, to Al-Husseiny Mosque . At Friday lunchtime hundreds of men stream out of the mosque after the
weekly sermon, pausing perhaps to buy prayer beads or a copy of the Quran from the surrounding mosque shops. In
the precinct in front of the mosque, craftsmen sit cross-legged behind their tools waiting for their next job.