Amman Citadel: Layers of History and Civilization in Jordan
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Vocal.Media
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2025/10
The Amman Citadel, perched on Jabal al-Qal’a, offers a living chronicle of civilizations stacked across time. From the Ammonites of the 9th century BCE, whose inscriptions to Milkom survive, to Roman temples, Byzantine churches, and Umayyad palaces, the site reflects continual reconstitution. The Temple of Hercules, colossal ruins, Byzantine adaptations, and Umayyad architecture illustrate layers of cultural inheritance, interrupted by earthquakes and restored in modern times. The Archaeological Museum, once home to the Dead Sea Scrolls, deepens the story. Visiting reveals more than ruins—it is a lesson in how civilizations adapt, recycle, and endure, while raising questions about humanity’s future.
Arrival and Atmosphere
Amman in the Summer is hot. It’s a Friday. I am adjusting not only to the heat, but also to the beautiful, tan-coloured landscapes everywhere, across the view from a vantage point.
I took a ride to the top and entrance of Amman Citadel. I wasn’t allowed in, as there was a need to wait until it opened. No worries, the heat is not scorching… yet. Waiting and waiting, and waiting, check out the dirt, the weeds, the plastic trash sprawled on the hills, broken concrete staircases, and it’s open.
The ridge, Jabal al-Qal’a, had inhabitants living and fortifying it by the Middle Bronze Age. The Ammonites made what is now known as the Ammon Citadel their capital. The Ammon Citadel has an inscription in Ammonite. According to experts, this is the earliest known text in the Ammonite language. It was discovered in 1961 and dates back to the late 9th century BCE, and is thought to be a building dedicated to the god Milkom. Today, it is housed in the on-site Archaeological Museum.
There are the standard entrance payments. Tour guides are on standby, and for a reasonable price in dinar. Tourism is currently at a very low level. After the tours, you will be offered more information about further opportunities as part of the bargaining or negotiation process.
Empires and Reconstitution
An inscription from the mid-2nd century CE misnamed a location at Amon Citadel as the Temple of Hercules. The inscription was to Governor Geminius Marcianius (161-166 CE). The temple podium measured 43 meters by 27 meters, with columns 13.5 meters tall. In the 1990s, restorers added three new column drums. They lifted a massive 16-ton architrave.
A colossal marble hand was found nearby. This suggests that a Hercules statue originally stood about 13 meters high. A 6th-century Byzantine church was built using Roman stone. The church aisles visibly incorporate re-cut Roman columns. Early Islamic period artisans transformed the hill into a complex featuring the Umayyad audience hall, cistern, colonnaded street, and mosque.
A massive earthquake occurred in AD 749. This damaged most of these. Archaeologists highlight tilted column bases and a broken water channel in situ as direct evidence of the quake’s destruction. These were watched over by an Ayyubid tower built from spolia. The tower, constructed in the early 13th century, incorporates Roman column drums into its walls and underwent restoration in 1996.
Starting in 1951, the Jordan Archaeological Museum on a small hilltop displayed Dead Sea Scrolls and ‘Ain Ghazal statues. Most of the ruins are left underground, unexplored. Some sources give 1952 as the founding date. The museum once housed the Copper Scroll. These headline pieces now anchor the Jordan Museum downtown, which opened in 2013. Those are now in the Jordan Museum in Amman.
Lessons in Layers
Going through with a tour guide is highly recommended, as the history of stacked civilizations is deep; that’s an essential observational lesson, among many. One, civilizations rise and fall. Two, we aren’t as much of an inventive species as a reconstitutive species. New cultures co-opt the old/dying/dead culture and build upon it. Ammon Citadel represents this more clearly with architectural reconstitution. Even the Umayyad audience hall’s dome today is a 1998 reconstruction, completed by a Spanish team.
Get the correct view, whether live or online, in one gaze. You can almost see Ammonite letters, Roman columns, Byzantine aisles, Umayyad stucco, and the contemporary city of Amman living below. The city’s own names trace the strata: Rabbath-Ammon, then Philadelphia, then Amman. It raises a civilizational existential query: What next? If.
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