Dec 26 - Heavy rain all morning and temperature low all day. Its enlightening to see it, in a place one normally associates with constant sun, dust, and heat. It feels like mid-September, when we were in Belgrade, except for the call to prayer.
It is still raining when we venture out in the early afternoon, and the streets have streams flowing down them. We go down the steep hill to King Hussain Street, an area full of restaurants, bakeries, and clothing stores, then back up the opposite hill to Amman Citadel.
The hill occupied by Amman Citadel is said to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited places on the planet (by humans). It shows evidence of Neolithic tools, and a large cave where Bronze-age writing was found can still be seen just to the side of the Temple of Hercules. Hill fortifications here were built and modified during the Kingdom of Ammon, the Neo-Assyrian Empire, the Neo-Babylonian, Ptolemies, Seleucids, Romans, up to the Umayyads, after which it fell into ruin.
Walk around downtown for an hour, then back up the steep stairways to Paris Square and our apartment. We had a huge laundry load completed and has been drying for the last day. Organize a taxi ride to the airport for tomorrow.
Jordan