#60 Jordan – Amman – back to some old history

I arrived in Jordan almost 2 weeks ago and I wasn’t able to update my blog due to some laziness and other personal reasons.
Jordan is a kingdom located in the Middle East, and as they say here it’s located between Iraq and a hard place, just to describe a region that’s been known for many political upheavals. Nevertheless, this country is an oasis of peace.
Jordan has very rich history, and it came under the control of many civilization and many foreign nations such as; the Romans, the Greeks, the Persians, the Nabataean, and various Caliphates of the Umayyads and the Abbasids. In the 19century it was part of the Ottoman Empire and then came to be under the control of the British Empire till 1946 when it gained its independence.
The population of Jordan is around 6 million; it had a population of less than 500,000 at turn of the 1900. The growth of the population has put a lot of stress on its water resources which are very limited. Most of the growth in population has to do with wars in the region where many have sought refugee in this peaceful country. Today most Jordanians come from different backgrounds, such as Caucasians, Chechens, and Armenians who trace their roots to small republics in Southern Russia. There are sizable population of Syrians, Turkish, Palestinians, Lebanese, and Iraqis who took refugee in Jordan since the American invasion in 2003. The majority of Jordanians are Muslims with about 10% are Rome Orthodox and Catholics. Jordan is more moderates than other countries in this region. English is widely spoken and there ‘s a small western and south Asians expats.
Amman is the capital city of Jordan and the diversity of its population is more visible than other parts of the country. Almost one third (around 2 million people) live in Amman. The city was originally built on seven hills. The temperature is very nice, around 15C during the day but gets chilly at night. In some winters temperature can go down to 0C with some snow but only for short periods. In the summer it gets very warm as high as 40C.