Amman

Amman (biblical Rabbah Ammon; ancient Philadelphia), capital of Jordan and Amman governorate, northern Jordan, near Jerusalem. Amman lies about 40 km (25 mi) north of the Dead Sea and is the commercial, industrial, and administrative centre of Jordan. Industries here manufacture textiles, tobacco products, dry batteries, leather goods, tiles, and cement, and process flour and other food products. The extraction of phosphate and petroleum refining are other important industries. There are excellent international rail and airline services in operation.

The city Rabbah Ammon has its origins in the period around 1500 bc, and was important as the chief city of the Ammonites. In the 3rd century bc the Egyptian king Ptolemy Philadelphus captured it and renamed it Philadelphia, under which name it was known throughout the eras of the Roman and Byzantine empires. Many ruins of this period can be seen in Amman today. By the 1st century ad it was a leading city of the Roman province of Arabia. Lost to the Byzantines at the rise of Islam and subsequently conquered by Arabs in the 7th century, the city fell into decline around 1300 taking its former name, Rabbah Ammon. The name was again restored in the 20th century. An important Turkish base during World War I, it was taken from the Turks by the British in September 1918. Amman became the capital of newly independent Jordan in 1946. During the Arab-Israeli War of 1948-1949, the city received many Palestinian refugees from the new Jewish state of Israel; their number increased after the Arab-Israeli War of 1967, when Jordan lost control to Israel of areas west of the River Jordan occupied by Palestinians. In 1970, as a result of political differences between the militant Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Jordanian government, fighting occurred in Amman, and the city suffered heavy damage. Population 1,237,000 (2003 estimate).