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<< Our Photo Pages >> Amman. in Jordan

Submitted by enkidu41 on Thursday, 03 February 2005  Page Views: 6048

Site Name: Amman.
Country: Jordan Nearest Town: Amman  Nearest Village: Amman
Latitude: 31.950000N  Longitude: 35.920000E
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
no data Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
no data Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
no data Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
1
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Wadi Sakra
Wadi Sakra submitted by ammanamba : A standing stone that has escaped building clearance outside the Association of Banks in Jordan building in Amman. (Vote or comment on this photo)
Amman the capital of Jordan lies on a high plateau of 850 metres. Built originally on seven hills, the main areas of Amman gain their names from the hills (jabals) on whose slopes they lie. It has a wealth of history and prehistory and is dotted with a number of historic sites from the stone age to the Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Islamic eras. Neolithic sites and villages were discovered in the 1980s in a number of areas in the city, one such site being a village 10 times the size of Jericho. There is also the recent discovery just south of the city last July, of Tall Al-Umayri, a 3,500 year old temple from the Late Bronze Age (c.1500 BCE).

During the Iron Age, Amman was the Capital of the Ammonites, and it is referred to as Rabbath-Ammon in the Old Testament, an area thought to have been located where the ancient Citadel which towers above the city from atop Jabal al-Qala’a now stands. The city which was rebuilt during the Hellenistic and Roman periods was renamed Philadelphia in the 3rd century BCE by the Hellenistic ruler Ptolemy II eventually reverting to its Semitic name in around 635 CE when the short-lived rule of the Persian Sassanians collapsed before the Arabian armies of Islam.
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Nearby Images from Flickr
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IMG_9809
_DSC0061
Roman Theater in Amman
Roman temple of Hercules, Amman

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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 1.4km ENE 72° Jordan Archaeological Museum* Museum
 1.4km ENE 69° Amman Citadel* Ancient Village or Settlement
 6.8km NE 52° Ain Ghazal* Ancient Village or Settlement
 9.5km SSW 199° Tall al-Umayri* Ancient Village or Settlement
 18.6km SW 218° Hesbon* Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 26.0km WSW 239° Rawdah* Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 28.4km SSW 206° Adeihmeh* Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 28.4km SSW 205° Madaba Mosaic Map* Misc. Earthwork
 28.5km SSW 204° Madaba (Jordan)* Ancient Village or Settlement
 30.9km SW 218° Dolmens at Wadi Jadid* Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 34.4km WSW 242° Tulaylat al-Ghassul Ancient Village or Settlement
 36.7km N 356° Jerash* Ancient Village or Settlement
 37.2km WNW 296° Damiyah dolmen field* Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 38.8km SSW 212° Khajar Mansub* Standing Stone (Menhir)
 39.1km SSW 212° el-Mareighat* Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 39.1km SSW 212° South of Khajar Mansub Menhirs & Dolmens* Chambered Tomb
 40.1km S 182° Khirbat Al-Mudayna* Ancient Village or Settlement
 41.6km ENE 67° Qasr al-Hallabat* Stone Fort or Dun
 43.4km W 260° The Gilgal associated peacefully with Joshua Stone Circle
 45.0km WNW 302° Argaman-Gilgal sanctuary Ancient Temple
 47.0km WSW 257° Jericho* Ancient Village or Settlement
 49.3km WSW 242° Qumran* Ancient Village or Settlement
 50.0km S 180° Umm Al-Rasas* Ancient Village or Settlement
 50.5km ESE 117° Kharaneh IV* Ancient Village or Settlement
 50.9km SSW 213° Mukawir* Hillfort
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Jordan Valley - cradle of civilisations? by coldrum on Wednesday, 25 August 2010
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Jordan Valley - cradle of civilisations?

Archaeological finds in the northern Jordan Valley are forcing experts to rethink the patterns of the earliest civilisations.

In Tabqat Fahel, 90 kilometres north of Amman, recent finds indicate that the ancient site of Pella, which spans across the earliest pre-historic times to the Mameluke era, may have been a part of the cradle of civilisations.

Over the past five seasons, University of Sydney teams have been focusing on the early Bronze Age period, 3600BC-2800BC, a time when humans went from smaller villages to larger towns and large-scale urban communities.

When Australian and Jordanian teams began exploring early urbanisation in the Jordan Valley, many expected it to occur later and be influenced by the burgeoning civilisations to the east and west.

Findings of a city wall and other structures, dating back to 3400BC and as early as 3600BC, show that Pella was a formidable city-state at the same time Sumerian Iraq was taking shape.

Although experts currently turn to Mesopotamia and Egypt when discussing the earliest centres of ancient civilisation, the northern Jordan Valley should also be given a mention, according to Stephen Bourke, University of Sydney professor and Pella project leader.

“We found stuff as early if not earlier than Mesopotamia and much earlier than ancient Egypt,” he said.

With the unearthing of a fortified hilltop and large city walls on nearby Tal Husn, experts believe that the site of Pella was a formidable city around 3200-3400BC, 500 years earlier than previously expected for the area.

“These are not just the signs of a small city, this is a massive mega-city,” Bourke said.

Copper findings at Pella originating from Anatolia and Cyprus also indicate significant economic, social and political development at a time as early as Mesopotamia and predating the reign of Egyptian pharaohs, Bourke said.

The discovery of Cypriot copper even led experts to believe that ancient Cyprus began exporting copper in 2500BC, 300 years earlier than previously thought.

According to the findings, Bronze Age Pella grew in parallel with the mighty civilisations in Egypt and Mesopotamia, rather than being influenced by its neighbours.

The similarities, however, end in 2800BC, when civilisation abruptly stopped in ancient Pella.

“Pharaonic Egypt and Mesopotamia further developed into massive empires - and why didn’t the Jordan Valley follow suit?” Bourke remarked, adding that future surveys, starting in 2011, will attempt to answer that question.

Bourke theorised that a devastating earthquake combined with climate change may have contributed to slowing down development in the Jordan Valley, while nearby Egypt sped into the third dynasty.

Also as part of future excavations in Pella, Australian and Jordanian teams will attempt to locate an elusive Bronze Age palace, a structure expected to be similar to the palaces built west of the River Jordan during the period.

Some even hold out hope that the palace may yield one of the initial dreams of the Pella project when it was established some 30 years ago: A library of ancient clay tablets.

“Initial findings indicate that the palace probably dates back to around 1400BC, which would be the right time period for the text and libraries in the area,” Bourke said.

Another “holy grail” for the ancient site is remnants of the time of Alexander the Great. Pella, which is named after his hometown in Macedonia, has long been associated with Alexander.

“With a name like Pella, we knew there should have been an early Hellenistic link to the site,” he said.

Although Hellenistic findings have been few and far between over the past three decades, last year teams discovered a caché of coins and pottery on the wes

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