Ammon News - The number of visitors to the Jordan Archaeological Museum at Amman Citadel reached 48, 252 during January and February of this year, including 28,629 foreign visitors and 19,623 Jordanians, marking a 57% increase compared with the same period last year.

According to preliminary official figures issued by Jordan’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, the number of visitors during January and February of last year stood at 30,739, including 19,116 Jordanians and 11,623 foreigners.

Cable Car Project

In October 2025, the government revealed details of the Amman Citadel Cable Car Project in the capital, stating that it will operate along two routes: one connecting the Citadel to Jabal Al Lweibdeh and another linking the Citadel to the Roman Theater.

At the time, the government said the project would serve as a major tourism, investment, and economic attraction, helping revive central and eastern Amman, create job opportunities, and strengthen the status of old Amman as a key tourist destination rooted in heritage, history, and community.

The government explained that the project will be managed by Vision Amman Company with support from the Ministry of Tourism.

In October 2025, Chairman of the Greater Amman Municipality Committee Yousef Al Shawarbeh said the cable car project is expected to cost around 8 million Jordanian dinars and take about a year and a half to complete.

Regarding the completion date, he said: "We expect it to be finished by the end of 2026 or during the first quarter of the following year."

Historical Eras

Reviewing the historical periods that shaped the site, former Director General of Jordan’s Department of Antiquities Fadi Balawi said that the Amman Citadel, "one of Amman’s seven hills," emerged as a center of governance and administration during the Iron Age, when the Ammonites adopted it as their capital and named it Rabbath Ammon. He noted that the site once enjoyed major military and strategic importance.

He added that the Ptolemaic ruler Ptolemy II Philadelphus rebuilt Rabbath Ammon and renamed it Philadelphia, meaning "City of Brotherly Love." During the Roman era, Philadelphia flourished and expanded, becoming one of the cities of the Decapolis League, with public landmarks such as streets, theaters, plazas, baths, markets, and temples constructed there.

Balawi also said that Amman received significant attention from the Umayyads, who built a mosque and palace with an official and political character, as the city served as a governmental center housing the governor’s headquarters, a military garrison, and a mint for coin production.

Among the most prominent landmarks at the Citadel is the Temple of Hercules, considered one of the largest and most important surviving Roman structures in ancient Philadelphia. It dates back to the second century AD, specifically between 161 and 166 AD, and its towering columns can still be seen from downtown Amman and the surrounding hills.

He noted that the Citadel also contains three churches, most notably the Byzantine Basilica, built in 550 AD, featuring Corinthian capitals decorated with acanthus leaves that were reused from Roman buildings.

Balawi added that the Umayyad-era structures represent a complete Islamic city, including a mosque, market, bathhouse, palace, throne hall, and reception hall built during the reign of Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik, as well as residential units and a mint for Islamic coins.

Other archaeological landmarks at the Citadel include the Colonnaded Street site, the mosque located at the highest southern point of the hill near the Umayyad Palace, the Jordan Archaeological Museum — the first museum established in Jordan in 1951 — and the water reservoir known as "the pool."