RUINS ANCIENT AND MODERN

The first part of this blog can be found at http://nutty-prof.blogspot.com/.

Amman is a rather ugly, modern city. Apartment blocks cover the hills in every direction. But proudly floating over it all is the largest flag in the world, suspended from the largest flagpole, all the gift of some grateful Saudis.

A hill in the centre of the town has the Citadel. There is evidence that it was fortified in the bronze age, but today the most prominent relic is the Umayyad Palace (6th Cent AD). Here, the Traveller admires part of the Audience Hall, which looks a bit like a Byzantine church because it was built on the remains of one.

Through the Audience Hall, a colonnaded walkway leads to the Throne Room. There were shops on either side, and under the walkway, very extensive water-collection systems.

In one section of the Citadel there was a small but fascinating archeological museum. I was particularly taken by the golden maiden - until I saw her ghostly chaperone, peering in intaglio from the stone below! The Museum also housed some of the Dead Sea scrolls. I had forgotten that they had been found in Jordan.