Amman Citadel Nov, 2022

Описание: Amman Citadel has been occupied since Neolithic times
Pillars here tell you about each of the stages
Temple of Hercules
Bronze Age burial site
Ummayad & Roman precinct
Looking at is a Lime Kiln. Lime was used for building in construction. The kiln was fired with wood & it would take about 3 days to prepare the lime.
A Byzantine Church, the main aisle the two naves on either side, the semi-circular at the top where the altar was.
Byzantine just means Eastern Roman Empire.
You can see a cistern, the water in the Umayyad precinct
On the other side of the courtyard is the Roman precinct.
The cistern holds 1350 cubic litres of water, and the base is two & a half meters.
From cistern, you can see on the ground a water channel going to this building.
This amazing structure is the bathhouse (hammam) and cool, medium & hot rooms (frigidaria tepidarium & caldarium)
Heading through this ornamental gateway into the Umayyad precinct you can see the reconstructed stone and the copper dome.
You get to the colonnaded street with the reception room of the palace.
Each of those pillars would have had an arch over the top.
Being within a restricted area it would have gates controlling it at either end.
At the other end of the colonnade street, you can see a row of stones leading to that open drainage area, which is part of the water system. Entering through the courtyard to the throne room.
The flag is 60 by 30 meters and can be seen up to 20km away.
Along the colonnaded street, there is a little walkway, you see an oven or a fireplace with the shape of these stones. Their benches potentially could have been a business like a bakehouse.
The next group of buildings are interesting with three entry points, one on each wall. Outside there is a row of columns which probably indicates a portico. People would walk underneath to enter these buildings.
The Roman Precinct it is a fairly square building that is flanked by three rows of columns.
There would have been like a corbel or something between each of them to allow for another layer they have a two-story building.
The other thing that I can see is these two round circles. Those manhole covers are modern manhole covers but you can see next to them the smaller stones that are forming a circle. Those would have been more original stones & the manhole covers the original manhole cover is gone. You can see all the little stones around so that would be also part of the water system
Another interesting part of this Roman precinct is it was surrounded by these rows of columns. That centre section, I would anticipate it being a fountain or a well or a grassed area. Roman buildings are often built around our little inner courtyard or garden.
Behind the museum, there is a collection of little rooms.
Get a tour guide and then take some additional time to explore yourself you see some additional smaller things that you might have missed.

Looking at the Temple of Hercules standing above the Bronze Age burial chamber past a wonderful sarcophagus.
The hand of Hercules
These two items are a grindstone, you can see that the grain would be put in here 2 poles would be on either side allowing the person to be pushing it around & the lower base. One is conical shaped there's a cone shape & so the top Stone would be grinding against that conical bass stone, grinding the grain into flour.
The hand & elbow of Hercules. With the proportions of this statue, it would be about 13 meters tall.

A grinding wheel that would be on its side now, you would make it upright with a post through the middle & it would be moved around by a horse or an ox.
Stones of conical shapes would be the center of some grindstones.
From here you can start to get a real appreciation of the size of the Temple of Hercules with that person moving over the antiquity.
I've just spotted those couple of sarcophagi pretty impressive.
I am looking at that stone that I noticed while I was on that Upper Terrace, I have still no idea what it is, it is interesting. It has a section square that would tell me that it had a post-it, had to have been wood of the size. Maybe it is a stone of some kind that would have gone around & around maybe it is crushing. (I think it is an olive press)
Looking at the defensive structure in these areas I would anticipate without reading the sign up there will be some form of the guard tower. There's another one a little further up it looks like a defensive structure.
The existence of any population you need a water source & this is the ancient cistern water system. The whole of the precinct, it's about a kilometre & a half long, there's several different water collection areas.
From the Citadel you can see the Roman Amphitheatre & there is a smaller theatre.
Another thing that you can see from up here, it's not uncommon all around Amman to have murals painted on the side of buildings, they're just spectacular.


Edited by VideoGuru:https://videoguru.page.link/Best