Day trip to Iraq al-Amir
The most famous set of ruins in Amman are the Citadel, Roman Odeon, and Nymphaeum – all of which I’ve blogged about previously ( here and here ). What many people fail to realize, is that Amman is home to a lot more ruins. There are active dig sites (archeologists actually excavating sites) in around the city. For this entry, I want to show you an off-the-regular track place called Iraq al-Amir . Roughly translated, it means “Cave of the Prince”. But there’s more than caves! The village proper lies a scant 35 km or so from downtown Amman. That’s about a 40-minute drive from our house, depending on traffic. The road drives through Wadi As-Seer, a village originally settled by Circassians in the 19 th century, but that has since been usurped by Amman (a wadi , pronounced, wah-dee , is basically a catch-all term for a canyon of any size). Circassians are still prominent in Wadi as-Seer. You may know them from T.E. Lawrence (the Brit) tales: to initially gain the trust of Arab...