Picturing Jordan

The King Hussein mosque was built in 2005 and is the largest mosque in Jordan. I haven’t visited it yet, but I’ve spent quite a few evenings admiring it from a balcony in the Khalda neighborhood of West Amman.

Another day, another exquisite, hand-painted ceiling in Amman. Just like the other hand-painted wood ceiling I posted about a few weeks ago, the work was done by an old Syrian man. This one is actually in my flat, and I may or may not have taken this picture while laying on my back on the living room floor.

There’s an amazing wetland nature preserve an hour and a half from Amman — in thirty minutes of walking around, I saw birds, snakes, crabs, fish, and even water buffaloes! For thousands of years it was a massive, thriving oasis whose ecological diversity supported human settlements, but in the past few decades it has come dangerously close to drying up due to increased water usage from surrounding cities.