the citadel

today ali and i braved the most likely second coldest day of the year in amman (to be surpassed only by tomorrow, when it is supposed to snow) to explore a site of ruins downtown called the citadel. the citadel sits on amman’s highest hill (amman was originally built on 7 hills, its sprawl now covers 19), and houses ruins from three different periods of amman’s jam-packed history: roman, ummayad (one of the islamic caliphates), and byzantine. we saw the towering pillars that are the remnants of the roman’s temple of hercules,



the outlines of a huge ummayad palace with its very well-preserved domed hall,


and the ruins of a byzantine church.


the citadel site is also home to jordan’s national archaeological museum, which houses treasures such as the oldest examples of sculpture in human history (8,500 years old) and parts of the dead sea scrolls. no big deal really :)



being on the city’s highest hill also afforded us some great views of amman on all sides, including being able to look down on the roman amphitheater- another historical site i’m sure i’ll be visiting soon.


looking out over amman today reminded me of valpo- same hills one after the other, same houses stacked on top of each other- there’s just a slight lack of bright colors here that make it a liiiittle different haha.


but today’s adventure really made me realize what a historically/culturally/archaeologically/etc. place jordan is- as ali reminded me, we are in fact in “the cradle of civilization,” so i guess ancient ruins come with the territory.
our touristy experience ended in a very touristy way: a taxi driver trying to get us to pay him 10 dinar for the ride home. obvio we laughed at him and refused, and it was cool to know enough arabic to explain to him exactly how/why we knew he was being completely ridiculous- those aamiyya (dialect) classes are definitely proving worthwhile.