I(Chris) had a business meeting at the Dead Sea Resorts area of Jordan. See previous posts.

Amman is the capital of Jordan and is considered to be among the most liberal and westernized Arab cities. It has one of the tallest flag pole in the world. Jordan is a monarchy, having gained its independence in 1946.

Amman is among the most popular locations in the Arab world for multinational corporations to set up their regional offices, alongside Doha and only behind Dubai. When the location of our business meeting was first announced, many of my colleagues were worried about safety. At this time and for quite a long while, there was nothing to worry about really.

Areas of Amman have gained their names from either the hills (Jabal) or the valleys (Wadi).There are approx. 4 million people and it is located in north-central part of the country. Residential buildings are limited to four stories above street level and if possible another four stories below. The buildings are covered with thick white limestone or sandstone.

We spent most of our time at the Amman citadel – Jabal al-Qal’a, (جبل القلعة) – located in the center.

It is probably one of the world’s oldest continuously inhabited places, having been occupied by many great civilizations. Most of the buildings still visible at the site are from the Roman, Byzantine, and Umayyad periods.

From the top, a Roman Theatre built around 100 AD is visible, nested among residential buildings.

Parts of the Temple of Hercules are still standing.

Hand of Hercules. The full status must have been enormous.

While walking about in the citadel, a giant military propeller cargo plane (C-130?) flew above us – reminding us that Jordan is in the middle east.

After the citadel, we had a chance to stroll in the old city, checked out the market and bought some spices.

We walked through a mostly fruits-and-vegetables section of the market.

Fresh almonds, never seen them before until then, they tasted nothing like the dried almonds we eat.

Spice shops. An amazing range of products.

I am so curious as to how they all taste.

And these products are all so inexpensive, except we do not know what they are …  too bad we did not have more time to investigate.