Welcome to Jordan! We arrived in this land of contrasts at the end of August 2007. Some people told us it was boring and quiet, yet others told us it was dangerous – how could it not be, nestled between Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Israel and the Palestinian Territories. Despite these contradictory warnings, in our first week we only found positives - the people are friendly and welcoming, the weather is great, the food is delicious, apparently crime is almost non existent and despite Amman not being one of the prettiest capitals in the world it is a fine place to live. This page has a few photos from our first couple of weeks.
Amman is built on a number of small hills about 800m above sea level. Like most of Jordan it is very dry and dusty and its agglomeration of boxy concrete houses which spread all over the hills and beyond have taken on the same sandy colouring and appearance of the natural landscape. Although taken individually it is not pretty, vistas such as the ones below make it quite an attractive city (if you don't look too closely).
These are the views from our apartment on Jebel Amman
A more streetlevel view.
Despite being a relatively modern city (there were said to be only 2,000 inhabitants in the late 1800's as opposed to nearly 2 million now), there is the well preserved Roman theatre downtown.
The traditional Jordan meal of felafel (balls in the centre), fuul - mashed fava beans (top) and hummus - mashed chickpeas (right). There are also a few whole chickpeas and olive oil in the fuul and hummus. There is also a garnish of pickled vegetables and it is always served with unleavened bread - pitta. This is washed down with sweet mint tea. Absolutely delicious and all for about 30p.
On our first free weekend we went the Dead Sea. Famous for its extremely salty water and therefore very buoyant.
The lowest point on earth gets rather warm as demonstrated by this sign at the Movenpick resort, one of a handfull of resorts by the water's edge
We also took a trip out to the nearby town of Salt. Here is the main street and market.
