This neolithic statue was found at the site of Ayn Ghazal outside Amman and dates from 7500 BC. It is one of the oldest surviving statues of its kind and size.
It is thought to be one of the oldest statues in the world. It stands 84cm high and is made of white plaster encasing a cane frame. It belongs to a group of cane and plaster statues found in Ayn Ghazal in 1983. Many of the Ayn Ghazal statues have painted clothes, tattoos and features – including cowrie shell eyes marked with black bitumen. Ayn Ghazal is a neolithic site in north-eastern Jordan outside Amman and was largely forgotten until road development work and subsequent excavations began in the 1970s and 80s.
Damiya Dolmen Field is made up of hundreds of stone burial chambers found in the lower foothills of the Jordan Valley, in Jordan.
More than 5,000 years ago during the early bronze age, the large slabs of Ramla sandstone and travertine that lie here were used to build burial chambers called dolmens. Currently, about 300 of these dolmens still can be seen at the site. But since these dolmens are simply propped up by stone, they are increasingly under danger of collapsing.
Currently, quarrying operations are threatening the dolmens at Damiya. The Jordanian Department of Antiquities has tried to document the structures at the site, but quarrying continues to go on.
Madaba is a Jordanian city of 60,000 people which is about 20 km southwest of Amman. It has a settlement history going back at least 5,000 years. At the end of the 4th millennium a small agricultural village existed there.
In the Iron Age, about 3,000 years ago, a 16 hectare settlement appeared that had a fortification wall five meters high and seven meters thick (at its strongest point). The city is mentioned in the bible as being near a battle between King David and a coalition of Ammonites and Aramaeans.
The city was destroyed later in the Iron Age and was re-occupied, after the fall, by people living in poorly built, simple houses.
In late Hellenistic and Early Roman times it was used as a small fort. In the Byzantine era it became a substantial town, famed for its mosaics. The most famous of which, the Madaba Map, is a 6th century cartographic depiction of the holy land, the oldest map to show this territory.
It declined again in medieval times and appears to have been abandoned during the 9th century AD. It didn't re-emerge until the 19th century when it was settled by Christian tribes from al-Karak and grew into the modern city it is today.
Jerash is known for the ruins of the Greco-Roman city of Gerasa. It is believed to be one of the most significant examples of Roman cities in the Near East.
After the Roman conquest in 63 BC, Jerash was annexed by the Roman province of Syria, and later joined the Decapolis cities. In AD 90, Jerash was absorbed into the Roman province of Arabia. In the second half of the first century AD, the city achieved much prosperity. In AD 106, the Emperor Trajan constructed roads throughout the area and more trade came to Jerash.
The King’s Highway was a trade route of great importance to the ancient Middle East. It began in Heliopolis in Egypt, and reached right across the Sinai Peninsula to Aqaba, where it would then veer to the northturned north, leading to Damascus and the Euphrates River. On this route travelers would have past many ancient settlements, such as Edom, Moab, Ammon.
Petra is an archaeological site in Jordan that is renowned for its rock-cut architecture. It is also one of the New Wonders of the World. The Rose City of Petra has been described by Unesco as "one of the most precious cultural properties of man's cultural heritage".
The impressive eastern entrance leads steeply down through a dark, narrow gorge called the Siq, a natural geological feature formed from a deep split in the sandstone rocks and serving as a waterway flowing into Wadi Musa. At the end of the narrow gorge stands Petra's most elaborate ruin, The Treasury or 'Al Khazneh', hewn into the sandstone cliff.
This neolithic statue was found at the site of Ayn Ghazal outside Amman and dates from 7500 BC. It is one of the oldest surviving statues of its kind and size.
