<description>Recent content in Amman on Picturing Jordan</description>
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<p>Jordan&rsquo;s location in the geographical &ldquo;near east&rdquo; has exposed it to dozens of civilizations over the course of history. In the last three thousand years alone the region has invariably fallen under the Persian, Greek, Nabataean, Roman, Byzantine, Arab, and Ottoman empires, the legacies of which are often still visible today.</p></description>
alt="Several reams of colorful fabric stacked vertically in a shop in downtown Amman."/><figcaption>
<h4>Reams of colorful Bedouin fabric on sale in downtown Amman</h4>
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<p>Anyone who has drank tea in Petra or ate <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mansaf">mansaf</a> in Wadi Rum will quickly recognize the unique fabric adorning traditional Bedouin tents in Jordan. These colorful designs are commonly used across the Arabian Peninsula and beyond, from Syria and Iraq in the north to the United Arab Emirates and Oman in the southeast. American musician Cardi B even featured some in the 2017 music video for her song <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEGccV-NOm8">Bodak Yellow</a>!</p></description>
<p>Shortly after moving to Amman <a href="https://picturingjordan.com/2016/09/saint-thaddeus-church-amman/">I noticed this unique building</a> on a distant hill and I set out on a sort of scavenger hunt to find it. The walk from downtown to Jabal Ashrafieh is packed with winding streets and steep staircases (some of which go nowhere). To this day the church is one of my favorite landmarks in Amman and I often make the trek there when I&rsquo;m feeling like getting some exercise and exploring the city. I like to think of it as a pilgrimage—it <em>is</em> a religious site after all!</p></description>
<p>There is a popular notion that cleanliness is an important part of the Islamic faith, though you wouldn&rsquo;t know it from walking around Jordan. I have never seen people throw coffee cups, half-eaten sandwiches, tissues, etc on the street so carelessly—and often times with such <!-- raw HTML omitted -->finesse<!-- raw HTML omitted -->—as here in Jordan.</p></description>
<p>You haven&rsquo;t lived until you and your friends have eaten seventeen different colors of rice, meat, and sauces while sitting on the floor at the <em>Bab al-Yemen</em> restaurant in Amman. If my experience is anything to go by, every item on the menu is downright delicious—including the humongous, flame-kissed flatbread that would be almost as fascinating to see being made as it was to eat.</p></description>
<p>The <a href="https://jordanriver.jo">Jordan River Foundation</a> has a showroom on Rainbow Street where they <em>brilliantly</em> showcase traditional, everyday objects from the region in a fresh, modern way. It&rsquo;s like someone went and replaced all the things in your grandma&rsquo;s rural kitchen with newer, brightly accented ones. All of the wood, cloth, and clay work here is produced by people in local communities, and, as far as I know, the proceeds from sales go back to supporting them.</p></description>
<p>The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Hussein_Mosque">King Hussein mosque</a> was built in 2005 and is the largest mosque in Jordan. I haven&rsquo;t visited it yet, but I&rsquo;ve spent quite a few evenings admiring it from a balcony in the <em>Khalda</em> neighborhood of West Amman.</p></description>
<p>There&rsquo;s a shop in Amman&rsquo;s main market downtown that sells traditional Arabic sweets. I&rsquo;m not sure who was more excited about this half-kilogram of baklava (which is called &ldquo;<em>baklawa</em>&rdquo; in Arabic)—me, or the jovial young Jordanian selling it.</p></description>
<p>Even if the number of mosques in Amman <em>didn&rsquo;t</em> outnumber churches by a factor of ten, the Saint Thaddeus Armenian Apostolic church would still stand out. The unique architecture caught my eye once and then I started seeing it every time I glanced at Jabal Al-Ashrafiyeh. After weeks of squinting and asking myself &ldquo;<em>Is that an Armenian church?</em>&rdquo; I finally went on an scavenger hunt and found it.</p></description>
<p>I can&rsquo;t even read Arabic but I&rsquo;m pretty sure that billboard is telling people to <em>put their fucking phones down while driving</em>. It&rsquo;s like an epidemic here. I&rsquo;ve never seen people look less at the road while driving than here in Amman.</p></description>
alt="Sheep carcass lazily discarded in neighborhood dumpster"/><figcaption>
<h4>Sheep carcass lazily discarded in neighborhood dumpster</h4>
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<p>As Muslims around the world are busy wishing each other a blessed <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eid_al-Adha">Eid al-Adha</a>, some poor bastard has to clean up this lazily discarded sheep carcass from my local dumpster (note the entrails spilled below). Keep it classy, Jordan.</p></description>
<p>The irony is rich with this one, because this mosque has a sound system from another planet. If I wasn&rsquo;t worried about my personal safety I&rsquo;d put up a sign right next to it saying: <em>Please mute your mosque, there is a sleeping Alan 50m away</em>.</p></description>