Abu Jaber Museum

About Abu Jaber Museum

The Historic Old Salt Museum occupies the Abu Jaber House, the grandest merchant house of Salt's golden age: a three-storey building in the heart of the old town facing Al-Ain Plaza, built by the Abu Jaber family between 1892 and 1906 in the yellow Salti limestone that gives the city its colour, and finished with Italian marble floors, German tiles, Belgian glass and ceilings painted in oils with scenes of the seasons by an artist brought from Palestine. The family donated the house to the Ministry of Tourism; it was restored with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and opened as a museum on 2 November 2010 over 1,242 square metres. Across its three floors the museum tells the story of Salt in its prosperous years between 1847 and 1918, when it was an Ottoman administrative centre and a market for the merchants of Nablus and Damascus, and shows its architecture, daily life and trade, together with archaeological finds from the region: Chalcolithic pottery from Tuleilat al-Ghassul, Byzantine glass, Roman bronzes, mosaic fragments and bracelets and objects from Wadi Shuaib. It celebrates the spirit of tolerance that led UNESCO to inscribe Salt in 2021 as a World Heritage Site, "the Place of Tolerance and Urban Hospitality", where Muslims and Christians shared the same neighbourhoods, dress and way of life. From here starts the Harmony Trail, which walks visitors among the heritage houses, Hammam Street, the Great Mosque and the churches.

Where:

Salt, Jordan