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Citadel - Umayyed Palace and the Temple of Hercules

Historic Site

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Umayyad Palace (Photo Courtesy: Hassan Bushnaq)
Roman Temple of Hercules (Photo Courtesy: Berthold Werner)

The ancient citadel sits atop the Jebel al Qala'a hill, the highest hill in Amman. The citadel is one of the most important historic sites in the world; it has been inhabited since the Palaeolithic Age. Artefacts dating to the Bronze Period have been found on the slopes of the hill and archaeologists believe that the hill was probably a part of a fortress or an open commercial space for many centuries. Today, the huge Umayyad Palace and the Roman Temple of Hercules are the most important surviving monuments on the citadel. The Umayyad Palace dates back to the 8th century and is believed to be built by the Umayyad Arabs. The Umayyad palace is a large structure of royal and residential buildings, unfortunately it was destroyed by an earthquake couple of decades after its completion in the 8th century. Built between 162-166AD during the reign of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, the Roman Temple of Hercules was a web of honeycomb-coloured columns and beams located on the middle terrace of the hill below the Umayyad Palace. The huge 33 feet columns of the Temple are visible from all parts of Amman.

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Historic Site (Memorial)

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