The Amman Skyline

  Amman, Jordan
Tuesday, July 8, 2008

There's a restaurant called the Wild Jordan on Jebal (Mountain) Amman; Amman's streets crisscross over 20 hills. Besides being a delicious yet relatively expensive place to eat it has an amazing view across and along the valleys and onto the hillsides that surround it. The sun is low in the sky at around 6, as children across the city fly homemade kites in the hundreds. You can sit and count in one small portion of the sky literally 70 kites, flying high above the city. To the West, dwarfing the kites in size, is a huge Jordanian flag measuring 30 meters high by 60 meters long. For the flag to ripple once from end to end in the steady breeze takes a few second; it flies on the tallest flagpole on earth. Directly in the center of this panorama, across the valley over which the Wild Jordan looks, is the ridge-line of Jebel al Qala'a, on which sits the remaining pillars of the Temple of Hercules.

Temple of Hercules

The eye runs North along the valley floor, as tributary valleys run streets into into the main downtown thoroughfares, and hills rise to divert their course.
 

Amman at Night

Amman at Night II

By 7:30 the sun has entered into its rapid decent, and by 7:45 has sunk beneath one of neighboring hills. As it does, the cries ring out from minarets across the city, calling the faithful to prayer. The adhan from the mosque nearest the Wild Jordan echoes off the surrounding jebaal. As twilight fades and kites drop from the sky, the lights of the city illuminate the buildings that cover the valleys and mountain slopes. Spotlights cast the Temple of Hercules in dramatic contrast to the darkened citadel hilltop, and neon-green bars of light, the color of Islam marking the top of every minaret, dot the cityscape.

Minaret

As the evening wears on, the crack of fireworks can be heard as they ricochet off the hills, their colors occasionally to be seen either peaking over a top of a hill or reflecting off windows farther along the valley slope.