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.