Al Jāmi‘ al Ḩusaynī

We met up with Abdallah an hour earlier than planned. The first thing he did was to take Mark inside the Grand Husseini Mosque 🕌 because he wouldn't be able to do it later due to Friday prayers. No women are allowed inside the mosque! Mark said it was interesting but not as ornate as other mosques we've visited.

Our walk took us through several different markets including those selling fruit and veg, meat, fish 🐟, live birds 🐦, second-hand clothes, and furniture. The fruit and veg market was particularly colourful with the freshest produce on sale and the biggest radishes we've ever seen! 😂

Despite this being a city tour, Abdallah took us to some restaurants and gave us some tasting samples. We just hoped we wouldn't end up in the same places on our food tour later in the day! As it was, although we came close, we didn't actually revisit the same places!

We didn't expect to be eating on this tour, especially coming so soon after our large breakfast! We tried delicious falafel from the Hashem restaurant which we'd read about in our guide book and made a mental note to return. We also had knafeh, a traditional Jordanian dessert of goats cheese topped with spun pastry soaked in attar, a sweet, sugar-based syrup, sprinkled with pistachios. It was sweet and savoury. We both enjoyed it but you couldn't eat much of it! Our third tasting was strong Iraqi mint tea which was really good.

We then had another food stop as I needed to change a big note and the only way Abdallah knew how we could do it was to buy a couple of cheap meat 🍖 sandwiches! I gave mine to a little boy who was begging nearby. From the look he gave me, I think he would have preferred the cash! 😂

In between the food, Abdallah proved to be an excellent guide. He pointed out lots of places of interest and explained about the history of the city.

We visited the remains of the Nymphaeum, a 2nd century AD Roman two-storey complex which would have had fountains, mosaics, stone carvings, and a 600-metre swimming pool 🏊‍♀️ . The site is still being excavated.

We also went to the Odeon, another 2nd century AD Roman ruin. It is a semicircular auditorium for musical recitals with space for 400 audience members.

Our tour finished at the Roman Theatre which dates from the same period as the Nymphaeum and is the most impressive remnant of Roman Philadelphia, the forerunner of modern Amman. It has a seating capacity of 6000 with the best seats at the front reserved for the rulers, the middle tier for the military, and the top tier for the general public.

I will add general photos 📸 of the walking tour to this footprint 👣 and market photos and photos of the Roman sites to the next ones.Read more