99 Fun Facts About Jordan

What is the capital and largest city of Jordan?

Amman is Jordan's capital and largest city, home to around four million people, and has been the seat of government since the Emirate of Transjordan was founded in 1921.

What is Jordan's ruling royal house, descended from the Sharif of Mecca, called?

The Hashemites, descendants of the Prophet Muhammad through Sharif Hussein of Mecca, have ruled since 1921.

Which ancient rock-cut city, capital of the Nabataeans, is Jordan's most famous attraction?

Petra, the Nabataean capital cut into rose-pink sandstone, was called Raqmu by its builders and was voted one of the New 7 Wonders of the World in 2007.

Which Swiss traveller rediscovered the Nabataean rock-cut city for the Western world in 1812?

Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, travelling in Arab disguise as Sheikh Ibrahim, talked his way into the hidden city in August 1812 on the pretext of sacrificing a goat at Aaron's tomb.

Al-Khazneh, "the Treasury", is believed to be the mausoleum of which Nabataean king?

Aretas IV, the Nabataean king who reigned from about 9 BC to AD 40, is the ruler whose tomb Al-Khazneh most likely was; its Hellenistic facade dates from his early-first-century reign.

In which year did Emperor Trajan annex the Nabataean kingdom for Rome?

In 106 AD Trajan absorbed the Nabataean kingdom as the province of Arabia Petraea and soon paved the old King's Highway as the Via Nova Traiana.

Gerasa, Pella and other Greek cities of Transjordan formed which league of cities under Rome?

The Decapolis was a league of ten Hellenistic cities on Rome's eastern frontier; Pliny the Elder's list includes Gerasa, Pella, Gadara and Damascus.

Which Jordanian city, ancient Gerasa, is nicknamed the "Pompeii of the Middle East"?

Jerash, ancient Gerasa, keeps colonnaded streets, an oval forum and two theatres, and its ruins host the Jerash Festival of culture and arts each summer.

What was Jordan's capital called after the Greeks conquered it in the 3rd century BC?

Philadelphia honoured Ptolemy II Philadelphus, whose dynasty held the city in the 3rd century BC; the name lasted through Roman times until Arab rule revived the older Semitic name.

Which Iron Age kingdom had its capital, Rabbath, on the site of Jordan's modern capital city?

Ammon was the Iron Age kingdom of the Ammonites, centred on Rabbath, whose citadel survives as the hilltop Jabal al-Qal'a above the modern capital.

The 'Ain Ghazal statues, among the oldest large human figures known, were modelled from what material?

Lime plaster was modelled over bundled reed cores to make the 'Ain Ghazal statues around 7200 BC; found in 1983, they are displayed in the Jordan Museum.

At which 636 battle just north of Transjordan did the Muslims decisively defeat the Byzantines?

Yarmuk, fought in August 636 beside the river of that name south of the Golan, broke Byzantine power in Syria and opened the Levant to the Rashidun caliphate.

Al-Karak and Montreal castles were built in Transjordan by which power?

The Crusaders raised Montreal (Shobak) in 1115 and Kerak around 1142 to guard the Lordship of Oultrejordain; Saladin's victory at Hattin in 1187 doomed both.

Ajloun Castle was built by which dynasty as an outpost against the Frankish invaders from Europe?

The Ayyubids, Saladin's dynasty, built Ajloun Castle in 1184-85 under his general Izz al-Din Usama to command the Jordan Valley against the Frankish lords of Karak.

Which Muslim refugees from the Caucasus resettled the abandoned site of today's capital under Ottoman rule?

Circassians, driven from the Caucasus after Russia's conquest, were settled by the Ottomans in the ruins of the ancient capital, founding the modern city that grew around their village.

The Hejaz Railway, completed across Transjordan in 1908, linked Damascus with which holy city?

The line turned the region into a stopover for pilgrims and was later attacked repeatedly during the Arab Revolt.

On what date in 1921 was the Emirate of Transjordan established under its first emir?

11 April 1921 is the date Abdullah's government was formed in the new Emirate, after Britain accepted him on a six-month trial at the Cairo Conference the previous month.

In which year did Jordan gain independence from Britain and become a kingdom?

In 1946 the Treaty of London of 22 March ended the British mandate, and on 25 May the emir was proclaimed king of an independent Transjordan.

Jordan's first king was assassinated in 1951 at which holy site in Jerusalem?

Al-Aqsa Mosque was where a Palestinian gunman shot the king on 20 July 1951 as he arrived for Friday prayers; his 15-year-old grandson, a future king, survived at his side.

Which king ruled Jordan for nearly 50 years until his death in 1999?

Hussein reigned from 1952 until his death from cancer in February 1999, nearly 47 years; crowned at 17 after his father's abdication, he survived repeated coup and assassination attempts.

Jordan and which neighbouring kingdom, ruled by a royal cousin, formed the 1958 Arab Federation?

Iraq, ruled by Faisal II, a cousin of Jordan's king, joined the Arab Federation in February 1958; it collapsed after the 14 July revolution killed Faisal in Baghdad.

In which war did Jordan lose control of the West Bank to Israel?

The Six-Day War of 1967 cost Jordan the West Bank and East Jerusalem within days in June; it had annexed the territory in 1950 and formally renounced its claim in 1988.

After Black September in 1970, Palestinian fighters were expelled from Jordan to which country?

Lebanon received the PLO leadership and thousands of fedayeen after the 1970-71 fighting; the organisation ran its operations from Beirut until it was forced to leave in 1982.

In which year did Jordan sign its peace treaty with Israel?

The treaty was signed on 26 October 1994 at Wadi Araba on the border, following the Washington Declaration of July that year; talks had begun at the 1991 Madrid Conference.

Who became King of Jordan on 7 February 1999?

Abdullah II, the late king's eldest son and a former special-forces commander, was sworn in on the day his father died and was crowned in June 1999.

Which militant leader's al-Qaeda branch bombed three hotels in Jordan's capital on 9 November 2005?

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia claimed the 9 November 2005 suicide attacks, which killed about 60 people including guests at a wedding party; he was killed by a US airstrike in 2006.

Jordan's only coastline, 26 km long, lies on which body of water?

The Red Sea touches Jordan only along a 26 km strip at the head of its northeastern gulf, where the country's sole seaport handles its maritime trade.

What is the lowest point in Jordan, and the lowest land point on Earth?

The Dead Sea's shore lies about 430 m below sea level, the lowest land elevation on Earth, and the lake is the deepest hypersaline lake in the world.

What is Jordan's highest point, at 1,854 m?

Jabal Umm al Dami rises to 1,854 m in the far south near the Saudi border and is about 120 m higher than Jabal Ram, the best-known peak of the same desert.

Which desert valley in southern Jordan provided locations for both Lawrence of Arabia and The Martian?

Wadi Rum's red sandstone and granite cliffs doubled for Mars in The Martian (2015) and hosted David Lean's 1962 Lawrence of Arabia; the protected area joined the UNESCO list in 2011.

A desert rock formation in southern Jordan was renamed after which book by T. E. Lawrence?

Seven Pillars of Wisdom, Lawrence's 1926 memoir of the desert war, lent its name to the formation once called Jabal al-Mazmar; the title itself comes from the Book of Proverbs.

Into how many governorates is Jordan divided?

12 governorates make up Jordan, grouped informally into northern, central and southern regions; the capital's governorate alone holds roughly four in ten Jordanians.

What is the currency of Jordan?

The Dinar, divided into 1,000 fils, replaced the Palestine pound in 1950 and has been pegged at about 0.709 to the US dollar since 1995.

Roughly what share of Jordan's population is Sunni Muslim?

95% or so of Jordanians are Sunni Muslims; most of the remainder are Arab Christians, who have nine seats reserved for them in the House of Representatives.

How many Syrian refugees were living in Jordan by 2015, according to estimates?

1.4 million Syrians were in Jordan by 2015 by government estimate, though only about 630,000 were registered with UNHCR; the kingdom also hosts over two million registered Palestinian refugees.

What is mansaf, Jordan's national dish?

Lamb in fermented dried yogurt sauce, served on flatbread and rice and eaten by hand from a large tray, is mansaf; the sauce is made from jameed, balls of hard dried yogurt.

What does the red triangle on Jordan's flag represent?

The Hashemite dynasty and the Arab Revolt are what the red chevron stands for; the black, white and green bands recall the Abbasid, Umayyad and Fatimid caliphates.

How many points does the white star on Jordan's flag have?

They refer to the seven verses of the opening chapter of the Quran, and the star stands for Arab unity.

Al-Maghtas on the east bank of the Jordan River is venerated as the site of what event?

The baptism of Jesus by John is placed here by tradition; the site, 'Bethany Beyond the Jordan', was inscribed by UNESCO in 2015 and has been visited by three popes.

Which biblical figure viewed the Promised Land from a mountaintop east of the Jordan before dying?

Moses, in Deuteronomy 34, climbs the peak opposite Jericho, sees the land he may not enter and dies there; the summit carries a Byzantine church and a brazen-serpent sculpture.

The 6th-century Madaba Map, the oldest surviving map of the Holy Land, is made of what?

Floor mosaic is the medium: some two million tesserae laid in the Greek Orthodox church of Saint George at Madaba depict the region with a walled Jerusalem at the centre.

Ahmad Abughaush won Jordan's first-ever Olympic medal, a gold at Rio 2016, in which sport?

Taekwondo gave Jordan its first Olympic medal when Ahmad Abughaush took the men's 68 kg gold in Rio, beating Russia's Alexey Denisenko in the final.

Jordan lost the final of the 2023 AFC Asian Cup to which team?

Qatar, the hosts and holders, beat Jordan 3-1 in the final in Lusail on 10 February 2024, with Akram Afif scoring a hat-trick of penalties.

Jordan missed the 2014 World Cup after losing a two-legged play-off to which country?

Uruguay crushed Jordan 5-0 in the first leg in November 2013 and drew 0-0 in Montevideo, ending the kingdom's deepest-ever run in World Cup qualifying at that time.

Jordan's first organised army, founded in 1920, was known by what name?

The Arab Legion was raised by Captain Frederick Peake in 1920 as a small police force and grew, under Glubb Pasha from 1939, into the army that held East Jerusalem in 1948.

Which airline is Jordan's national flag carrier, based at Queen Alia International Airport?

Royal Jordanian, founded as Alia in 1963 and renamed in 1986, flies from the capital's Queen Alia International Airport and joined the oneworld alliance in 2007.

Which two minerals are Jordan's main industrial products, along with cement and fertilisers?

Potash and phosphates dominate mining: the Arab Potash Company evaporates brine from the southern end of the salt lake, while phosphate rock is dug at Eshidiya and Al-Hasa.

Jordan measures 400 km from its northern tip to which city at its southern end?

Aqaba, the port at Jordan's southern tip, sits 400 km from the northern border; the country covers about 89,000 km2, mostly desert east of the highlands.

Copper for bronze was extracted on a large scale in antiquity from which Jordanian valley?

Wadi Feynan, on the edge of the Dana Biosphere Reserve, holds vast slag heaps from smelting that began in the Chalcolithic and peaked under Iron Age Edom and Rome.

Which gorge, the Arnon of the Bible, separates the Madaba plateau from the Karak highlands?

Wadi Mujib is the biblical Arnon; the gorge plunges from the plateau to the salt-lake shore 410 m below sea level and shelters a biosphere reserve known for its Nubian ibex.

The Mesha Stele, erected in 840 BC, records the boasts of a king of which Transjordanian kingdom?

Moab's king Mesha had the basalt stele carved at Dibon to boast of shaking off the house of Omri; found in 1868, the original has been in the Louvre since 1873.

Ayla's late-3rd-century ruin is held to be the oldest purpose-built house of worship of which faith?

Christianity is the faith served by the mud-brick church at Ayla, built between AD 293 and 303, the oldest known structure erected specifically as a church.

The Abbasid campaign to overthrow the Umayyads began in which Transjordanian village?

Humayma, a desert settlement in the far south bought by the Abbasid family around 700, was the base from which the revolt that toppled the Umayyads in 750 was organised.

In the 1968 Battle of Karameh, Jordanian forces and the PLO repelled an attack by which country?

Israel sent armoured columns across the river on 21 March 1968 to strike the fedayeen base at Karameh; Jordanian artillery and PLO fighters made them withdraw with losses, a famous morale boost.

In 1997 Israeli agents entered Jordan on Canadian passports and poisoned which Hamas leader?

Khaled Mashal, then Hamas's political bureau chief, was injected with a slow-acting poison in the capital in September 1997; the agents were caught and the antidote was handed over to save him.

Which king established Jordan's modern constitution in 1952 before abdicating through illness?

His eldest son Hussein took the throne in 1953 at just 17 and reigned for 46 years.

How much saltier than the average ocean is the Dead Sea?

10 times is the usual comparison: the lake's water is about 34% dissolved salts against roughly 3.5% for the oceans, which is why bathers float effortlessly and fish cannot live in it.

By the mid-2010s, Jordan was credited with what share of Arabic-language content online?

75% of Arabic-language content online was attributed to Jordanian firms in the mid-2010s, a claim often repeated about the capital's start-up scene, which produced the Arabic portal Maktoob, bought by Yahoo in 2009.

Jordan's first oil-shale power plant, commissioned in 2023, is called what?

Attarat, a 470 MW plant at Attarat um Ghudran southeast of the capital, burns locally mined oil shale and reached full commercial operation in 2023 after a decade of development.

Which Petra monument stood in for the Grail temple in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade?

The Treasury (Al-Khazneh) played the exterior of the temple holding the Grail in the 1989 film; the interior scenes were shot on a studio set, as the real chamber is a plain room.

The Jordan River flows through which lake before it drains into the Dead Sea?

Sea of Galilee, also called Lake Tiberias or Kinneret, receives the upper Jordan from the north and sends the lower river south into the rift valley; the whole river runs about 251 km.

The King Abdullah I Mosque in Amman is capped by a mosaic dome of what colour?

Blue mosaic tiles cover the great dome, a landmark of the Abdali district; built from 1982 to 1989 in memory of the first king, the mosque holds about 3,000 worshippers and welcomes non-Muslim visitors.

What is the national flower of Jordan?

Black iris (Iris nigricans), a near-black purple bloom endemic to Jordan's highlands around Madaba and Karak, flowers briefly in spring and is protected as an endangered species.

Queen Alia, the third wife of Jordan's king, died in 1977 in what kind of accident?

Helicopter crash: her aircraft came down in a rainstorm on 9 February 1977 while returning from a hospital visit in Tafilah; the king announced her death himself on the radio.

Queen Rania of Jordan was born in 1970 in which country?

Her family, originally from Tulkarm in the West Bank, moved to Jordan only after the Iraqi invasion of 1990.

Which science-fiction series gave Jordan's future king a non-speaking cameo in 1996?

Star Trek: Voyager's second-season episode 'Investigations' (1996) features the then prince, a devoted fan, as an unnamed science officer; he got no lines because he was not a union actor.

Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kasasbeh, killed by ISIL in 2015, was flying what aircraft when it crashed?

F-16 Fighting Falcon: his air force jet came down near Raqqa on 24 December 2014 during a coalition sortie; the kingdom answered his murder with airstrikes dubbed Operation Martyr Muath.

In March 2000 Pope John Paul II visited the summit of which biblical mountain in Jordan?

Mount Nebo, traditionally the peak from which the Israelites' leader viewed the Promised Land, hosted the Pope on 20 March 2000, who prayed in the Byzantine memorial church on the summit.

How do the members of Jordan's Senate take their seats?

Appointed by the king is how every senator reaches the upper house, for a renewable four-year term; the constitution caps the Senate at half the size of the elected lower house.

The red-and-white checkered keffiyeh that symbolises Jordan is known by what name?

Shemagh is the Jordanian name for the red-and-white cotton headscarf, held in place by a black cord and worn with tassels; Jordan's army and police issue it as part of uniform.

The largest facade at the Nabataean capital, reached by 800 rock-cut steps, bears what English name?

The Monastery (Ad Deir) was carved in the 1st century AD, probably as a tomb or temple, and reached by a climb of roughly 800 rock-cut steps; crosses scratched inside gave it its later name.

In which year was Petra designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site?

1985 saw the inscription on 6 December, at the ninth session of the World Heritage Committee in Paris; the New 7 Wonders vote of 2007 later made it a household name.

Which northern Jordanian town sits on the ruins of Gadara, overlooking the Golan Heights?

Umm Qais stands on the ruins of Gadara, birthplace of the poet Meleager; its basalt theatre looks across to the Golan, and the Roman-era Qanat Fir'aun aqueduct brought water through 170 km of channels.

Zarqa, Jordan's second-largest city, was founded in 1902 by immigrants from which people?

Chechens, refugees from the Russian conquest of the Caucasus, founded Zarqa as a village in 1902 and were granted the land by Ottoman decree in 1905; the city grew into Jordan's industrial hub.

Jordan sealed its first-ever World Cup place in June 2025 with a 3-0 away win over whom?

Oman were beaten 3-0 in Muscat on 5 June 2025, a result that guaranteed Jordan a top-two finish in their third-round qualifying group and a first World Cup place.

Jordan's football nickname, Al Nashama, translates roughly as what?

The Chivalrous Ones is the usual rendering of Al Nashama, a word for gallant, generous men; the team took the name to the 2023 Asian Cup final, its best result.

Queen Noor, the American-born fourth wife of Jordan's king, was born under what name?

Lisa Halaby, a Princeton architecture graduate born in Washington in 1951, took the name Noor on marrying the king in June 1978; her father Najeeb Halaby had run Pan Am.

Which 2014 Bedouin coming-of-age film earned Jordan its first Academy Award nomination?

Theeb, Naji Abu Nowar's debut set among Bedouin in 1916, was acted by non-professionals from southern Jordan and won the Orizzonti directing prize at Venice before its 2016 Oscar nomination.

Which capital of Balqa Governorate was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2021?

As-Salt, built of honey-coloured limestone on three hills, was the main town of Transjordan under the late Ottomans before the Emirate chose a new capital in 1921; UNESCO cited its tradition of tolerance.

The Dead Sea Scroll displayed in Amman is unique for being written on what material?

Copper, rolled into two oxidised sheets, is the material of the scroll found in Qumran's Cave 3 in 1952; it lists hidden treasure and had to be sliced into strips in Manchester to be read.

Ancient Egyptians imported which Dead Sea product for use in mummification?

Asphalt (bitumen) floats up in lumps from the lake bed, and Greek writers called it Lake Asphaltites; Egyptian embalmers used the imported bitumen from Ptolemaic times, and 'mummy' itself comes from a Persian word for bitumen.

In which year did UNESCO add Jordan's national dish to its intangible heritage list?

2022 was the year the UNESCO committee meeting in Rabat inscribed 'Al-Mansaf in Jordan, a festive banquet and its social and cultural meanings' on the Representative List of intangible heritage.

Which Umayyad desert castle's frescoes include the first known map of the heavens on a dome?

Qusayr Amra, an early-8th-century bathhouse lodge east of the capital, carries a zodiac painted across its caldarium dome, along with hunting scenes, bathers and the 'six kings' panel of defeated rulers.

According to Josephus, John the Baptist was imprisoned and executed at which Jordanian fortress?

Machaerus, the Herodian hilltop fortress above the eastern shore near modern Mukawir, is where Josephus says Herod Antipas held and beheaded John; the Gospels add Salome's dance and Herodias's demand.

Jordan made its Olympic debut at which Summer Games?

1980 in Moscow was Jordan's first Games; the kingdom took part in every Summer Olympics after that and waited 36 years for its first medal.

Which Amman club, rooted in a Palestinian refugee camp, is Al-Faisaly's fiercest rival?

Al-Wehdat takes its name from the Wihdat camp set up for Palestinian refugees in 1955, and its derby with Al-Faisaly, a club long identified with East Bank Jordanians, is the country's fiercest fixture.

The airline Alia, Jordan's flag carrier from 1963, was named after which relative of the king?

His eldest daughter, Princess Alia, born in 1956 to his first wife, gave the airline its name when it launched in December 1963 with two Handley Page Heralds and a DC-7.

Which US prep school inspired King's Academy, which Jordan's king founded near Madaba in 2007?

Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts, where the future king boarded in the late 1970s, was the model for King's Academy, whose founding headmaster Eric Widmer came straight from running Deerfield.

Who was Jordan's crown prince from 1965 until being replaced in January 1999?

Hassan bin Talal, the late king's Oxford-educated younger brother, served as crown prince for 34 years before a letter from his brother, then dying of cancer, removed him on 24 January 1999.

Zaatari camp, opened for Syrian refugees in July 2012, lies 10 km east of which city?

Mafraq, the governorate capital on the road to the Syrian border, is the nearest city; the camp opened in July 2012 and at its 2013 peak held well over 100,000 people.

What 2004 royal statement from Jordan sought to define who is a Muslim and curb takfir?

The Amman Message was issued on 9 November 2004, and in July 2005 some 200 scholars from 50 countries endorsed its three points recognising eight schools of law, forbidding takfir and restricting fatwas.

In 1965 Jordan traded 6,000 km2 of desert for 12 km of extra coastline with which neighbour?

Saudi Arabia ceded the strip in a 1965 boundary agreement that lengthened Jordan's shoreline and brought the Yamanieh coral reef into Jordanian waters in exchange for inland desert.

What monument was built at Gerasa to celebrate Emperor Hadrian's visit in AD 129–130?

A triumphal arch, Hadrian's Arch, was raised at the southern approach to the city for the emperor's winter stay of 129-130; it stood outside the walls, perhaps intended as a new city gate.

Petra's Bedul Bedouin were moved from their cave homes in the 1980s to which settlement?

Umm Sayhoun, a purpose-built village on the hillside north of the ancient city, received the Bedul when the government cleared the caves and tombs they had inhabited, after the site's World Heritage listing.

A plaster inscription found at Deir Alla in 1967 records the visions of which biblical seer?

Balaam son of Beor, the seer hired to curse the Israelites in Numbers 22-24, is named in the text of around 800 BC, written in red and black ink on plaster and recovered as 119 fragments.

Which Jordanian prime minister was assassinated by the Black September Organization in 1971?

Wasfi Tal, serving his third term as prime minister, was shot dead in the lobby of Cairo's Sheraton hotel on 28 November 1971 while attending an Arab League meeting, the group's first attack.

The Hellenistic palace Qasr al-Abd west of Amman is linked to which Tobiad governor?

Hyrcanus, son of the tax-farmer Joseph, withdrew east of the Jordan after losing out to his brothers in Jerusalem and, Josephus says, built the lion-carved palace before killing himself when Antiochus IV came to power.

Ceiling paintings found in a Nabataean dining cave at Siq al-Barid likely honour which Greek god?

Dionysus, the wine god, fits the vines, grapes and putti revealed when conservators cleaned the 2,000-year-old biclinium ceiling in 2010; Nabataean traders likely drank there in his honour.

Glubb Pasha, who led Jordan's army until 1956, was nicknamed Abu Hunaik for an injury to what?

The wound came on the Western Front in the First World War; the Arabic means "father of the little jaw".