a-Salt or السلط‎

After a 25 minute bus ride, on a bus identical to this one...

...I found myself in the ancient town of Salt ( السلط‎ As-Salt — pronounced As-Sult or As-Sàlt).

Salt was the regional capital of Transjordan during the Ottoman period, and the only town of any size in this region on the east bank of the Jordan River. The town took its current form in the late 19th century when merchants from Nablus arrived to expand their trading base to both sides of the river. These merchants brought along with them skilled craftsman and architects who constructed the beautiful Ottoman-style buildings that remain in the town today. Emir Abdullah considered making Salt his capital, but it is rumored that he was not well received there so he chose Amman to stake his claim instead.

After the 1948 war, Salt was cut off from its original trade routes and it began to decline, while Amman began to grow. Therefore, the town has seen none of the modernization that Amman has. This is not necessarily a bad thing as Salt remains quiet and clean compared to its big brother to the southeast.

Ottoman architecture in this region is defined by the long arched doorways and windows:

The old market street:

The town is known for its friendliness. This was demonstrated to us first-hand when a nice man on the street invited us to his home for tea. He wanted to tell us about the town, his family history, and he wanted to find out why the heck we were walking around there. The town was so friendly, in fact, that the cats and dogs got along nicely:

The blogger in the old Ottoman town square:

So if you are in Jordan with time on your hands... don't pass the Salt.

Wasat al-Balad (Downtown Amman)

Ask any cab in Amman to take you to "wasat al-balad", which literally means the "middle of the city" and it will drop you off here:




Downtown Amman is built in valleys and along the sides of the hills that flank them. It is full of small shops of all kinds, people, dust, cars, noise, and cigarette smoke. "No Smoking" signs in Amman only describe the few seconds it takes to light the next cigarette.

Some of the shops sell clothes, some sell pirated DVDs, some sell gold, and some sell nuts:

There is also a mosque or two... or one hundred. They come in different shapes, colors and sizes.

The Husseini Mosque (below), like almost every other building in Amman, is a recent construction (finished in 1924). It was built on the site of another mosque that was completed in 640 by Omar ibn Al-Khattab, the 2nd Caliph of Islam. Emir Abdullah ordered the previous site cleared for the construction of his new mosque for a reason unknown to me. Before 640, it is believed that the Cathedral of Philadelphia stood at this location.

A view of the inner courtyard:

Men relaxing before the late afternoon prayer:

The white structure contains a number of faucets used for ritual washing before entering the mosque:

More views of downtown:

Plates From the Arab States

Jordan is full of visitors.

This is especially true in the summer when thousands of Arabs (the ones that can afford it) flee their homes in the Gulf to avoid the incredibly hot temperatures. Amman, like Rome, is situated on 7 hills which allow a cooling breeze to fill the city. Instead of 140 degrees (F) in Riyadh, you can sit in the relative cool 90-degree air of Amman.

Wealthy Arabs also come to Jordan to utilize the country's modern private hospital system. Jordan is known to have the best private health care in the region outside of Israel. Many families move to Amman all-together when one of the family members has to spend a long time in a hospital. It is common for me to see entire families from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Dubai, etc., in my neighborhood because there are several high-end medical facilities located near the University of Jordan.

There are also still approximately 500,000 Iraqi refugees within Jordan's borders as a result of the United States' military action in Iraq (some relief agencies estimate the number to be as high as 750,000). There were well over a million Iraqis who fled to Jordan at the beginning of the war. Many have moved on to other countries and some have returned to Iraq. Last year, for the first time, Jordan officially pledged to allow Iraqi children to attend public schools regardless of their residency status. Of an estimated 200,000 school-age Iraqi children in Jordan, only 20,000 went to school in 2006, of whom only about 6,000 completed the school year. More information on Iraqi refugees in Jordan can be found here or you can Google it.

Anyway...

To entertain myself I have taken up a new hobby of collecting photos of all the different license plates that I've seen in Jordan from around the region. Of course, I've had to be very careful about it because the last thing I want to do is confront the owner of the vehicle who may assume, incorrectly, that I'm a spy. It brings me great pleasure to share my collection with you today!

Jordan:


Saudi Arabia:


Iraq (It says "Iraq Baghdad" on the plate. I'm going to take an educated guess that Saddam's intelligence apparatus decided to regionalize the license plates in order to spot cars that were driving in areas they shouldn't be driving):


Kuwait:


Qatar:


Lebanon:


Syria:


Dubai (I've seen, but haven't be able to capture, an Abu Dhabi. I haven't seen the other 5 Emirates - Ajman, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah and Umm al-Quwain):


Bahrain:

I'm still trying to capture an Oman (seen it) and a Yemen (haven't seen it). Once I get those, I feel my time here will have been well spent.