Amman

The hills above the Wadi Amman were settled in the Neolithic — the plaster statues found at 'Ain Ghazal on the city's northern edge are among the oldest large human figures made anywhere — and by the Iron Age the Citadel hill was Rabbath Ammon, capital of the Ammonites and a fortified town mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. Ptolemy II Philadelphus of Egypt refounded it in the third century BC as Philadelphia, and under Rome it joined the Decapolis league of Greek-speaking cities, gaining the theatre, odeon, nymphaeum and colonnaded street whose remains lie in the valley. After the Muslim conquest the Umayyads built a palace and mosque on the Citadel, and the town recovered its older name.

Amman then faded. Earthquakes and shifting trade routes left it in ruins, and for centuries it was an empty site where Bedouin camped among fallen columns. Its modern life began in 1878, when the Ottoman authorities settled Circassian refugees from the Caucasus on the site; the Hejaz Railway reached the town in 1903 and gave it a reason to grow.

In 1921 Emir Abdullah made Amman the capital of the new Emirate of Transjordan in preference to Salt, and the small town became a seat of government. Growth came in waves: Palestinian refugees in 1948 and again in 1967, Jordanians and Palestinians returning from Kuwait after 1990, Iraqis after 2003 and Syrians after 2011. Fighting between the army and Palestinian armed groups in 1970 was the most violent episode in the city's modern history. Each wave added districts of pale limestone houses along another ridge, and the capital spread far beyond the seven hills it is traditionally said to occupy.

Amman is a young, largely modern city whose culture comes from the people who built it. Families of Palestinian origin make up a large part of the population, alongside East Bank tribal families, the Circassian and Chechen communities descended from the 19th-century settlers, and Iraqi and Syrian arrivals of recent decades. Christians, mainly Greek Orthodox and Catholic, are a long-established minority, and churches stand close to mosques in Jabal al-Weibdeh and downtown.

The east–west divide shapes daily manners. Eastern Amman is denser, poorer and more conservative; western Amman has galleries, licensed bars, English-language schools and a self-consciously cosmopolitan scene. Both take hospitality seriously: guests are pressed to eat, refusal is expected to be repeated several times before it is accepted, and bringing sweets when visiting is normal.

The city's cultural life centres on its galleries and small arts spaces, several of them in restored houses in Jabal al-Weibdeh, on a lively independent music and film scene, and on the standing-room performances that fill the Roman theatre. Poetry, calligraphy and traditional dabke line dancing appear at weddings and public celebrations, when the red-and-white shemagh is worn with pride. Friday is the day of rest, marked by midday prayers followed by long family lunches, and football — the local clubs Al-Faisaly and Al-Wehdat above all — arouses strong loyalties.

Greater Amman is home to roughly five million people, well over a third of Jordan's population, and it keeps growing outwards along the ridges. The municipality is one of the largest employers alongside government ministries, banks, hospitals, universities and a substantial information-technology and outsourcing sector; tourism matters, but less than in Petra or Aqaba. Wealth is unevenly spread, with high youth unemployment and rents that rise faster than wages.

Geography organises everyday life. People describe where they live by hill — Jabal al-Hussein, Jabal al-Natheef, Jabal al-Ashrafieh — and by the numbered circles that punctuate the main western ridge. Many residents commute long distances across the city in taxis or shared vehicles, and traffic is a standing complaint. Water arrives on a weekly schedule and is stored in the black rooftop tanks visible on nearly every building; Jordan is among the most water-scarce countries in the world, and household rationing is a fact of life.

The day starts early, with bakeries and falafel shops busy by seven and schools running in shifts. Offices and shops close in the afternoon and reopen into the evening, when malls, cafés and parks fill up. Weekends run Friday and Saturday. Summer evenings are spent outdoors, and families drive to the forests of Ajloun and Dibeen or down to the Dead Sea for the day.

Amman eats well and cheaply. The everyday foundation is hummus, foul — stewed fava beans dressed with oil and lemon — and falafel, eaten for breakfast in plain downtown restaurants with pickles, raw onion and flatbread. Shawarma counters carve lamb or chicken into thin sandwiches through the evening, and grills serve kebabs, shish taouk and mezze of tabbouleh, fattoush, mutabbal and vine leaves.

Mansaf is the national dish and Amman's ceremonial meal: lamb simmered in jameed, a sauce of dried fermented sheep's yoghurt, poured over rice on sheets of shrak bread and eaten from a shared tray, traditionally with the right hand. Palestinian heritage brings maqluba, a pot of rice, meat and aubergine turned upside down to serve, and musakhan, roast chicken on flatbread heaped with onions, sumac and olive oil. Galayet bandora, tomatoes fried with onion and chilli, is the simplest supper.

Sweets are taken seriously. Knafeh — shredded or semolina pastry over melted white cheese, drenched in syrup and scattered with pistachios — is sold hot by weight and eaten standing up; qatayef, small stuffed pancakes, appear in Ramadan. Tea comes strong with mint or sage, and coffee is served in small cups with cardamom. Fresh juice stands press pomegranate, orange and sugar cane, and licensed shops and bars sell arak, the aniseed spirit drunk with water and ice, alongside Jordanian wine and local beer.