Journalism student Jana Aljamal reports on the reopening of Amman Citadel in Jordan.
By Jana Aljamal
AMMAN, JORDAN—The Citadel Historical Site has opened with reduced entrance fees for Arab nationals to encourage tourism during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Citadel is the capital’s oldest known landmark. Archaeological evidence suggests that the summit has been used as a settlement and a fortress for millennia. According to experts’ estimates, the site dates to the time of the rise of the civilization in Mesopotamia and the Nile Valley.
Settlements at the Citadel started at least from the Middle Bronze Age and continued through the Persian, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, and Arab Muslim periods. Archaeological evidence and remains of the previous civilizations are found in the Citadel.
For example, the site encapsulates the Roman temple of Hercules, which was built by Governor Geminius Marcianos. The Ummayid Caliphate also left its legacy through their still-standing monumental gateway that was used as an entrance hall to their palace.
The Citadel captures the lives of its settlers through remnants of water systems, churches and places of worship, as well as Bronze Age caves.
