Amman is the capital of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and is built upon seven hills. The city is dotted with a number of historic sites dating from the Stone Age to the Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Islamic eras. Amman is now a modern and vibrant city, where the new gleaming white houses of downtown Amman blend with the remnants of ancient civilizations. Join the locals roasting meat at the Kebab stalls and sitting in tiny cafes where rich Arabian coffee is sipped in the afternoon sunshine. The atmosphere conjures a mood straight from a thousand and one nights. In the souks you can bargain for fruit, perfume, gold or other exquisite luxuries of the Middle East.

Amman's origins go back a long way and Neolithic sites and villages were discovered in the 1980's in many districts. During the Iron Age, Amman was the Capital of the Ammonites, and it is referred to as Rabbath-Ammon in the Old Testament, an area thought to have been located, where the Citadel now stands. The city which was rebuilt during the Hellenistic and Roman periods was renamed Philadelphia by the Hellenistic ruler Ptolemy II. The Roman theatre is the most impressive fragment of the city to survive from Antiquity, cradled on the hills of Jebel Al-Taj overlooking downtown Amman. At one time the Roman theatre would have opened onto a vast forum lined with a colonnade