Amman Citadel

About Amman Citadel

The Amman Citadel on Citadel Hill is an archaeological site on an L-shaped hill towering over Downtown Amman, in the central part of the capital of Jordan.

The Amman Citadel, on Jabal al-Qal'a, is an archaeological site on an L-shaped hill towering over downtown Amman, and one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in the world. Traces of settlement go back to the Neolithic, the hill was fortified in the Bronze Age around 1800 BCE, and after 1200 BCE it became the capital of the Kingdom of Ammon, Rabbath Ammon; remains of Ammonite palaces, walls and cisterns cut into the limestone survive, and four statues of Ammonite kings from the eighth century BCE were found here. The hill passed under the Assyrians, Babylonians, Ptolemies, Seleucids, Romans and Byzantines, serving in classical times as the acropolis of a city that spread far below it, until the Islamic conquest in the seventh century, when the Umayyads built their palace on the summit. Centuries of abandonment followed, ended in 1878 when the Ottomans resettled Circassian refugees here and Amman came back to life. The main sights today are the Roman Temple of Hercules with its soaring Corinthian columns, a Byzantine church, the Umayyad Palace with its domed audience hall, and the Jordan Archaeological Museum, built in 1951, which tells the story of Jordan and Amman. From the edge of the hill there is a sweeping view over the Roman Theatre, downtown and the hills of the city.

Where:

Amman, Jordan