Travel / Photography

Room to Roam: You are Free to Wander Among The Ruins of Empires in the Centre of Amman

Don’t skip Petra, but don’t miss this either.

I love a good writing challenge and I can always rely on the good people at Globetrotters to supply one each month that inspires and encourages the telling of a memorable travel tale. The last few months have focused on the natural world and have made for great reading. This month centres on the human created world, specifically those creations that have stood the tests of time, war, pestilence, natural disaster, and human folly that have all challenged the continued existence of these places.

They are dotted around the world. Many of them are tourist destinations, tour buses and bucket list stuff. Some are off the beaten path and require real determination to reach. When I saw the writing prompt, my mind raced to the ones I’ve been able to be present in. Specifically, I knew I’d have to spend some time scrolling to see which ones I had usable photos of.

What’s the point of going to these places? Why go and stand in the places where epoch-shattering moments happened in the past? Why go and feel ghosts in Auschwitz, Sarajevo, Hiroshima, or in the Killing Fields outside Phnom Penh? Why go to the genocide museum in Kigali, Rwanda? Why rely on local knowledge to try to find the place where Tsar Nicholas II and his family were executed by the Bolsheviks near Yekaterinburg? Why travel to Haida Gwaii on the British Columbia coast to see the ancient villages of the First Nations People that existed long before European contact?

Because that’s where things happened. Because that’s where things went very wrong. Because these things need to be remembered.

I haven’t been to Macchu Pichu, the Pyramids of Giza or the Great Wall of China….yet. But I consider myself fortunate when I think about what I’ve seen and the imprint that all of these places left on me. Teotihuacán in Mexico City, Monte Alban in Oaxaca, Angkor Wat in Cambodia, the Gedächtniskirche in Berlin, the Coliseum in Rome, the Genbaku Dome in Hiroshima, Ephesus in Turkey, Petra in Jordan, the Swahili trading complexes in Songo Mnara in Kilwa, Tanzania and the Gede Ruins in Watamu, Kenya.

But one stands out above all others to me and it is the Roman ruins in the centre of Amman, Jordan. For one thing, they look stunning as a modern Middle Eastern city operates around them. Not as if they are not there, but rather that they are a part of the history and the landscape of the place that everyone seems to see as a valued part of the fabric of their city. Empires — Roman, Byzantine, Umayyad, Ottoman, British — have come and gone in this part of the world, but these constructions remain.

And because most visitors to Jordan go there to spend time at Petra, the ruins in Amman are often bypassed. In other words, while at Petra you will have to share the place with a lot of other people and will probably struggle to get that perfect photo without crowds, in downtown Amman — as the city buzzes around you — you just might have these places to yourself.

I don’t know about you, but I prefer sometimes to do these things without a guide. I realize that what I am missing out on, in terms of information, insight and anecdotes — as well as an opportunity to connect with a local person — I am gaining with regard to the freedom of creating my own experience.

In November of 2019, while living and working in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, I took a group of international school students to a Model UN Conference in Amman. I’ve been to many such conferences in various places and before the trip, as soon as it’s determined which other teacher(s) you are traveling with, a duty schedule is worked out in such a way that there is always a teacher present at the conference itself and the other(s) have a bit of free time to see a bit of the place. This worked out well for me in New York City and in San Francisco, and I made sure it would work in my favour again in Amman.

And so, I had one free day to just…wander. Wander with only a vague idea in mind of direction and what to see. What more could you ask for in terms of a travel experience? All I had to do was promise to bring all the kids home in one piece and my employer took care of the transportation, accommodation and food expenses. It’s as good as it gets.

So I walked and the first stop was the Roman Theatre, which was built in the second century CE when the city was called Philadelphia. A vast stage area greets you as you come through the gates after paying and rising up behind these is a formidable and steep incline of steps that are built into the hill and make up the seating (for about 6000 people). Views of the surrounding area and the realization that you are standing atop a construction from two millennia ago make the climb worthwhile.

A short walk from there is the Amman Citadel, built and then repeatedly built upon atop a commanding high point in the centre of the city. Though it has all the hallmarks of a Roman ruin, closer inspection indicates that it’s actually a series of overlapping and successive empires and civilizations that have left their marks there. Stairs, arches, walls, columns, temples, tombs, and palaces speak to the fact that Amman is considered to be the world’s oldest continuously inhabited place.

As it turns out again, photographs tell another side of the story that words don’t. As it was my first and only (so far) travel in the Middle East, they combine for a memory of a really good day on my own, wandering around Amman, Jordan. Getting lost in the architectural evidence of the waves of civilizations that have washed over this place is one way to experience it best.

Here are two other great examples of the quality of writing on Globetrotters

Adrienne Beaumont tells us about her time at the Roman-Berber ancient city of Volubilis in Morocco. Amazing photos.

Alejandro Cuba Ruiz made it to the Acropolis in Athens, another place that is high on my list.

I really do hope that you like what you have just read. If you want unlimited access to thousands of writers, consider a subscription to Medium. It will set you back $5 a month and if you use the link below, then I get a slice of that. I’m taking a break from world travel right now…but nothing lasts forever.