The top row
A view over downtown and the Citadel, and the acoustics still carry from there.
Bernard Gagnon — CC BY-SA 4.0 · el ui — CC BY 3.0 · xorge — CC BY-SA 2.0 · xorge — CC BY-SA 2.0
A Roman theatre cut into the hillside in the middle of downtown, seating six thousand, and the clearest surviving trace of Philadelphia — Amman's Roman name. It was built in the second century under Antoninus Pius, carved into the slope rather than raised on it, in the Greek and Roman manner of using the ground. It faces north deliberately so that the audience stayed in shade throughout a performance, a detail anyone sitting in it at midday notices at once. The upper rows are very steep and the steps high and narrow; climbing is tiring and coming down is harder. But sitting on the top row looking out over downtown is the point of the climb, and the acoustics still work: a word spoken in the middle of the orchestra carries to the summit. In the theatre's two wings are small museums included in the same ticket — the Folklore Museum and the Museum of Popular Traditions, holding Bedouin and village dress, jewellery and old photographs. Most visitors hurry past them; they deserve a quarter of an hour. The square in front, Hashemite Plaza, is where Ammanis gather in the evening, and the theatre is still genuinely used for concerts and festivals. It sits at the heart of downtown, walkable to the souk, the Husseini Mosque and the cafés of Rainbow Street.
A view over downtown and the Citadel, and the acoustics still carry from there.
Bedouin and village dress and silver, included in the ticket and worth a quarter-hour.
Directly in front, where Ammanis gather in the evening.
Downtown, Amman
Amman CitadelThe highest of Amman's seven original hills, where every layer of the city stand5 min walkRainbow StreetA single street in Jabal Amman between the First Circle and downtown, and the pl14 min walk
The Jordan MuseumJordan's national museum, holding two objects with no equal in any museum anywhe17 min walkThree quarters of an hour for the theatre itself including the climb, an hour and a half with both museums. Combine it with the Citadel above and downtown around it for a full half-day.
Yes — concerts, festivals and cultural events are held here, mostly in summer. If an evening performance coincides with your visit the experience is entirely different from seeing it empty by day.
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