Amman

Amman traces its history back to the ancient Ammonite city of Rabbath-Ammon, mentioned as early as the Bronze Age. In the 3rd century BCE, the Hellenistic ruler Ptolemy II Philadelphus renamed the city Philadelphia, and it later became part of a league of ten Greco-Roman cities. Following the Arab conquest in the 7th century, the city regained its Semitic name, Amman, but subsequently declined for several centuries to the size of a small village. Its revival began in the late 19th century with the resettlement there of Circassian refugees from the Caucasus. In 1921, Emir Abdullah I chose Amman as the capital of the newly established Emirate of Transjordan, and after independence the city became the capital of Jordan.