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: