Jordan's Timeless Treasures: A Tribute to Shared Heritage

Photo Exhibition by Bashar Tabbah

The establishment of the World Heritage List is a triumph of international diplomacy and cooperation for the benefit of saving and protecting world heritage. This is the spirit with which it all started and which needs to be preserved moving forward. It recognizes and acknowledges the universal importance of cultural heritage sites and provides an effective instrument for their protection.

Today, despite the incredible wealth of cultural heritage sites in the Middle East, with over 100,000 sites in Jordan alone, the region remains poorly represented on the World Heritage List.

We, in Jordan, are working closely with our international partners to remedy this imbalance.

UNESCO has described cultural and natural heritage as “irreplaceable sources of life and inspiration,” and nowhere is this truer than in the unique and magnificent sites of Jordan.

This exhibition is an attempt to illustrate the rich diversity of Jordan’s cultural heritage sites, including those that have been successfully listed as well as sites that will be recognized in the future.

Inscribed Sites

1.Petra

Petra was the first heritage site in Jordan to be listed, in 1985, on UNESCO’s World Heritage. It is considered as one of the world’s richest and largest archaeological sites.

The convoluted sandstone mountains that surround Petra are the setting for some of the most impressive works of man, created 2000 years ago by the Nabataeans. Using simple picks and chisels, Nabataean masons created mountain-top high places for worshipping their gods, cut stairways to reach them and grooved channels into the rock to bring water from springs in the eastern hills into the city. They constructed fine temples, palaces, public buildings and houses to live in. But the chief glory of Petra are the hauntingly beautiful tomb façades that they carved into the sandstone cliffs that surround the city.

What we see today is not what the Nabataeans would have seen. The buildings inside the city have collapsed in the recurrent earthquakes, making the tombs more visible than they were then; and all the monuments, whether carved or built, were then coated with plaster (still visible in places), and painted inside and out in colours of the Nabataeans’ own choosing. From areas of paint that still survive, it seems they rejected the rich palette that nature had provided, favouring instead a range of greens, yellows, blues and reds.

2.Quseir Amra

Quseir Amra was listed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 1985, the second site in Jordan to receive this designation. Located 85 km to the east of Amman, it is a complex of buildings consisting of a residence, a bathhouse and a number of hydraulic structures dating back to the Umayyad (early Islamic) period.

Its elaborate and intricate mural paintings render it a unique and important example of early Islamic art and architecture.

3.Um al-Rasas (Kasserton Mayfaa)

Um al-Rasas was added to the World Heritage List in 2004. Referred to as “Kastrom Mefa’a” in a Greek text written on a mosaic floor dating back to the Umayyad period, it is located thirty kilometers southeast of Madaba. Its archaeological remains span the Roman, Byzantine and early Islamic periods (late third to ninth centuries A.D.). While it started as a Roman military camp, it expanded into a town from about the fifth century and remains today largely unexcavated. The site encompasses a Roman military camp and sixteen churches, some of which contain elaborate and well-preserved mosaic floors.

4.Wadi Rum Protected Area

Wadi Rum Protected Area was inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage list in 2011 as a mixed cultural and natural site, the first mixed inscription for Jordan. Geographically, it covers an area of 740 square kilometers and is the largest protected area in Jordan, covering almost one percent of the total surface area of the country.

Wadi Rum Protected Area forms a major part of the Hisma Desert of southern Jordan and northern Arabia to the east of the Jordan Rift Valley.

 The area also bears witness to over 12,000 years of continuous human occupation. The site is home to 154 archaeological sites, including a Nabataean temple, and over 25,000 petroglyphs and 20,000 rock inscriptions from various periods ranging from the Neolithic to the Nabataean and beyond.

5.Al Maghtas, The Baptism Site, (Bethany Beyond the Jordan)

The Baptism Site on the eastern bank of the River Jordan received its UNESCO World Heritage listing in

2015. It is a site of immense religious significance for most Christians, widely accepted to be the location where John the Baptist baptized Jesus of Nazareth. Archaeological evidence points to the site serving as a place of devotion, prayer and religious activity from the fourth to the 15th centuries. The ancient tradition of baptism at the site has continued over thousands of years. Today, the site continues to be a pilgrimage destination for Christians, many of whom perform baptism rituals there.

6.The City of As-Salt: The Place of Tolerance and Urban Hospitality

In July 2021, As-Salt City was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list as “the Place of Tolerance and Urban Hospitality”, Jordan’s first historic urban center to be listed and its sixth site.  

The listing focused on the architectural and historic value of the city and the resulting living environment, cultural values and social developments – a symbiosis that is both unique in its components as well as its historic evolution and continuity. It emphasised the critical link between the tangible (architecture and urban context) and intangible (Christian and Muslim relations, honor of urban hospitality and urban social welfare) attributes of the city.

7.Um al-Jimal

The ancient village of Umm al-Jimal (Mother of Camels) was added to the July 2024, the largest and best preserved of a network of basalt-constructed Roman to Late Antiquity communities on the Hauran plain.  

Little is known of its origins from literary sources or inscriptions, including its early name. All the information has come from extensive archaeological excavations in its winding streets, houses of varying shapes and sizes, its reservoirs and churches. The largest building is thought to be a military barracks. It is the epitome of an agricultural town with the added function of a military base. 

While most of what we see today dates from the Byzantine period, Umm al-Jimal was probably first settled by the Nabataeans in the late 1st century AD; and then, after the Roman annexation of Nabataea in 106 AD.

Tentative List

8.al-Qastal

Jordan added Al Qastal to the Tentative List in June 2001, its design was so heavily influenced by classical culture that early visitors thought it a Roman ruin. Although its date is uncertain, it is thought it may have been built during the reign of the Umayyad Caliph, Yazid II (720-724 CE).

The complex consists of a palace, a bath house and living quarters. There was also a mosque, of which only the base of the minaret survives. This minaret, and also the cemetery associated with the mosque, are thought to be among the earliest in the Islamic world.

9.The Sanctuary of Agios Lot, at Deir ‘Ain ‘Abata

Jordan added the Sanctuary of Agios Lot at Deir ‘Ain ‘Abata (Monastery of the Abbot’s Spring), to the Tentative List in June 2001.

The site has unique and important historical and religious significance. It is related directly to the biblical story of Lot, who is also mentioned in the Quran and venerated by Muslims as a prophet. It is located at the southeastern end of the Dead Sea, on a steep mountain slope, three kilometers from the Dead Sea shore.

10.Shaubak Castle (Montreal)

Shaubak Castle was added to the tentative list in June 2001. Built in 1115, this was the first Crusader fortress east of the Jordan Rift and was the main base of the lordship of Oultrejourdain (beyond the Jordan) until 1142. Intended to control the routes connecting Syria and Egypt, its abundant springs and good arable land meant that it also fulfilled a provisioning role in the Crusader kingdom.

11.Qasr Bshir (a Roman Castellum)

Qasr Bshir, a Roman castellum, was added to the Tentative List in June 2001. It considered the best-preserved Roman fort in the Middle East.

It was built in 293–305 CE—a time of increased insecurity in the province of Arabia —by the provincial governor, Aurelius Asclepiades, and was dedicated to, ‘our best and greatest rulers’, the co-emperors Diocletian and Maximian. As a Praetorium, it may have had dual use as both the governor’s residence when inspecting the Roman frontier and as a point of contact with desert nomads to maintain peaceful relations with a potentially troublesome group. Its water supply came from two rock-cut cisterns in the courtyard, and a large reservoir about 500 metres away, which is still used by the local bedouin tribe.

12. Pella (Modern Tabaqat Fahil) (2001)

Pella is an extensive archaeological site in the north of Jordan, nestled in the fertile foothills of the Jordan Valley, about 90 km from Amman and about four kilometers east of the Jordan River. It lies adjacent to a geographic area that consists of forests and mountain terrain – different from the majority of settlements in Jordan.

One of the cities of the Decapolis, Pella was inhabited permanently or settled for hunting or herding during every preceding historical and prehistoric period for over 8,000 years, from the Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Persian, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and Islamic periods. The area in and around the site shows signs of human ancestry dating back to the Paleolithic era.

13. Qasr al-Mushatta (2001)

Jordan added Qasr al-Mushatta to the Tentative List in June 2001, an exceptional example of the Umayyad architecture of the desert castles of Jordan.  

Qasr al-Mushatta, translated from the Arabic into “Winter Palace,” is located about thirty kilometers south of Amman and is the largest of the Umayyad palaces in Jordan and most striking, albeit unfinished.

14. Abila City (Modern Quweilbeh) (2001)

Abila City, or modern Qweilbeh, was added to the Tentative List in June 2001.  

The name Abila is a Greek version of the ancient Semitic, Abil, meaning ‘lush meadow’, while Arabic influence has led to the modern adaptation, Qweilbeh. Situated in one of the most beautiful and hidden locations in Jordan, the ruins of Abila lie on and between two hills, with a small stream to the east of them, beyond which a third hill holds many rock-cut tombs dating to the late Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine eras.

15. Gadara (Modern Um Qais) (2001)

The ancient city of Gadara, the modern city of Um Qeis or Qays in the north of Jordan, was added to the Tentative List in June 2001.

Located on a hilltop in north–west Jordan, Um Qais enjoys wide views over Lake Tiberias, the Yarmouk river gorge and the southern end of the Golan Heights. Its name (a Hellenised form of the ancient Semitic name, Gader) is from the early 2nd century BC, when the Seleucids established a military settlement here.

Dating from this period are the massive city walls, parts of which survive, the base of a temple and an impressive network of tunnels that brought water from several kilometres away.

16. Jerash Archaeological City (Ancient Meeting Place of East and West) (2004)

Jerash, or ancient Gerasa is considered one of the largest and best-preserved Roman cities in the world outside of Italy. In ancient times, Jerash was a thriving, wealthy and cosmopolitan city, reaching its golden age during the Roman and Byzantine periods. Located 48 km north of Amman, Jerash was inhabited from the Neolithic period. Rare human remains dating to around 7500 B.C. were found at Tell Abu es-Suwwan, in the southeastern part of the modern city of Jerash. The discovery made in 2015 was incredibly important, making Jerash one of only a dozen sites globally that contain similar human remains.

17. Dana Biosphere Reserve (2007)

The Dana Biosphere Reserve was added to the Tentative List in May 2007 as a mixed natural and cultural heritage site.

Established in 1993 with a relatively large area of 300 square kilometers, the Dana Biosphere Reserve is a most diverse natural environment encompassing Jordan’s four different biogeographical zones: Mediterranean, Irano-Turanian, Saharo Arabian and Sudanian. These zones extend in altitude from 100 meters below sea level to 1,500 meters above sea level. Dana’s topography includes a system of wadis and mountains extending from the top of the Jordan Rift Valley down to the desert lowlands of Wadi Araba.

18. Azraq (2007)

Jordan added Azraq to the Tentative List in May 2007 as a mixed natural and cultural site.

Azraq is a unique wetland reserve in the heart of the arid Jordanian eastern desert. It contains several pools, a seasonally flooded marshland, and a large mudflat. Established in 1978, the Azraq reserve has an area of about 74 square kilometers, and is an important stop on bird migration routes between Africa and Europe, at the center of the Africa-Eurasian flyway, attracting an estimated half a million birds, with many remaining and breeding in Azraq.

19. Mujib Nature Reserve (2007)

The Mujib Nature Reserve is the only site in Jordan that was submitted to the Tentative List as a natural heritage site. It was added to the list in May 2007. The Mujib Nature Reserve surrounds Wadi Mujib, a deep and majestic canyon that cuts through the rugged highlands and drains into the Dead Sea.

20. Jordanian al-Harra (2019)

The Jordanian harrah was added to the Tentative List in August 2019. The harrah is a basalt-covered desert plain with lava flow remains that extends over a geographically large area crossing several countries from southern Syria, through northeastern Jordan to northern Saudi Arabia. 

The Jordanian harrah site is incredibly rich, with over 70,000 recorded and over 100,000 still unrecorded rock carvings, inscriptions and drawings that document and illustrate the diverse history, social and economic life and culture of the region, particularly of nomadic communities. This unique documentary evidence tells the continuous story of this area from prehistory through early Islamic to the modern day through both inscriptions and rock art featuring drawings of wild and domestic animals, entertainments, battles, hunts and daily-life activities dating from prehistory to the present.