Jordan News

 AMMAN — European interest in cartography of the Levant dates back to at least the 16th century, according to a Swiss researcher.

 “The first map which I detected as showing the exact location of Petra, including an abbreviated view of the city surrounded by mountains, was the one in Palazzo Colonna in Rome,” noted Ulrich Bellwald in a recent e-mail interview with The Jordan Times, adding that the map was drawn by Bartolomeo Bonomi in 1572.

 The map is called “Portolano del Mediterraneo” (“Mediterranean ports”) and the commissioner of the work was Marcantonio Colonna (1534-84), an Italian aristocrat serving the Spanish Crown, Bellwald said.

 As Bartolomeo Bonomi was an illustrator and engraver, rather than a surveyor or an engineer, the scholar said he wondered which models Bonomi would have used for creating the map.

 Colonna was an admiral in the battle of Lepanto, a naval engagement that took place in 1571, in which a coalition of European Catholic states arranged by Pope Pius V inflicted a major defeat on the fleet of the Ottoman Empire. Thus, Bellwald thinks these models “would most probably have come from the Ottoman side”.

 The scholar referenced “Kitab-i-Bahriye” (The Book of Navigation) by Hadji Ahmed Muhiddin Piri, saying that its first edition was printed in 1521, and its second shortly after, in 1525.

 After finding the original cartographic drawings in an archive in Istanbul, he said he was sure that Bonomi used Piri’s maps as models for his own Portolano at the Palazzo Colonna, not only copying the size and shape of the maps, but also the surveying lines, locations and names of the port and other cities.

 Piri’s work did not only show the most important ports, but also depicted cities in the hinterland, such as Petra and Damascus, Bellwald said, adding that it must have been rather easy for either Bonomi or Colonna to get a copy of Piri’s book as “there were numerous copies in the great libraries all over Europe”.

 When the Swiss orientalist Johann Ludwig Burckhardt famously rediscovered Petra in 1812, the name and location of the ancient Nabatean city was already known to a large group of well-educated people in Europe, he stressed.

 The third edition of Piri’s book, which gained even more popularity, included newer maps from Italian geographers Battista Agnese and Jacopo Gastaldi, and Dutch geographer Abraham Ortelius, Bellwald said, adding that this shows that there was a well-organised cooperation between Ottoman and Western scholars.

 The scholar also said that the findings infer that “the rediscovery of Petra by Burckhardt in 1812 was not purely occasional, but he went to the area of Wadi Musa with the knowledge that Petra must be located there”.

 Source: www.jordantimes.com

AMMAN — Recent fieldwork at the vast desert region in north-eastern Jordan has revealed an immensely rich heritage of an area that is difficult to access and archaeologically less known, according to a Dutch archaeologist.

 AMMAN — Middle Islamic pottery is an understudied subject and until recently no comprehensive typology existed for pottery from this period, according to an American archaeologist.

 AMMAN — Airport International Group (AIG) revealed that Queen Alia International Airport (QAIA) welcomed 1,233,484 passengers (PAX) during the first half of 2021, marking a 20.9 per cent and 70.3 per cent decline against 2020 and 2019 figures, respectively.

 AMMAN — Excavations at a Late Neolithic site in north-western Jordan revealed the existence of an agrarian society in which pottery held a key role, a Canadian archaeologist has said.

 AMMAN — Stakeholders in the tourism sector have welcomed the government’s three-stage plan to reopen closed sectors after months of pandemic-induced closures.

 AMMAN — Marble statues found in 2017 probably decorated the Great Eastern Baths in Jerash, said a German scholar.

 AMMAN — The Centre for the Promotion of Imports (CBI), an agency in the Netherlands funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has announced a project to support the Jordanian tourism industry for a period of four years. 

 AMMAN — In the Mamluk period, some of the most politically dangerous persons went to Karak Castle, said an American scholar.

 AMMAN — UNESCO project “Employment Opportunities for Cultural Heritage Safeguarding in Jordan” aims to invest in cultural heritage preservation while creating short-term job opportunities for Jordanians and Syrians, according to Giorgia Cesaro, senior project officer.

 AMMAN — A total of 657,918 tourists of various nationalities have visited Petra in the first eight months of 2019, compared with 507,299 visitors during the same period of 2018, marking a 30 per cent increase.

 AMMAN — Khirbet Jazzir, some four kilometres southwest from Salt, was mentioned in scholarly literature as biblical site Jazer, according to a German archaeologist.

 AMMAN — Integrated Water Conservation and Management Project at the Yarmouk Nature Reserve, through a participatory process, aims at conserving the natural water ecosystem, according to the project manager.

 AMMAN — Time has always preoccupied humans, and in order to organise daily life, ancient civilisations constructed different devices to measure time, said a Jordanian scholar.

 AMMAN — World Wildlife Day, which falls on March 3, this year celebrates forest-based livelihoods and seek to promote forest wildlife management models and practices that accommodate both human well-being and the long-term conservation of forests.

 AMMAN — The Kingdom’s tourism revenue in the first seven months of 2019 went up by 8.6 per cent to $3.2 billion, compared with the January-July period of 2018 that registered $2.95 billion, the Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ) announced on Wednesday.

 AMMAN — Ayla is now recognised as a global tourism destination on global travel platform TripAdvisor for travellers looking for a one-stop experience in Aqaba.

 AMMAN — An intricate mosaic medallion and marble capitals unearthed in a building in Shuqayra Al Gharbiyya, near Karak, speak to the wealth of the building’s original inhabitants, a Jordanian scholar recently told The Jordan Times.

 Jordan has been recognised for its amazing attractions and experiences in the latest Lonely Planet Ultimate Travel List, released today, with four of the country’s sights making the list in total. The spectacular sandstone ancient city of Petra has been named as the number one bucket list experience in the world, with Jordan’s otherworldly rose-sand Wadi Rum desert, the Dead Sea and its natural healing powers, and the beautiful Dana Biosphere Reserve also making the list.

 AMMAN — Jordan has an abundance of sites filled with Roman wall paintings adorning temples and necropolises, but paintings from later periods are often only found in fragments, according to a Polish conservator.

 Global travel authority Lonely Planet has unveiled a radical reimagining of its much-anticipated Best in Travel picks for 2021, reflecting an unprecedented year of disruption in the travel industry, and Amman, Jordan has been singled out as one of the destinations which are helping transform travel experiences. 

 AMMAN — Deputising for Her Majesty Queen Rania, Minister of Social Development Basma Ishaqat on Wednesday inaugurated the Bint Bladi Expo in support of productive Jordanian women.

 Jordan private tours and travel is proud to announce the winning of 2020 Travelers’ Choice Best of the Best Award winner.

 AMMAN — Tourism revenues have increased by 8.3 per cent during the first half of this year, reaching $2.6 billion (some JD1.9 billion) compared with $2.4 billion registered in the same period last year, according to preliminary data released by the Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ) on Monday.

 Jordan is a nation rich with history and excellence. Since they are so iconic, Jordan visits unavoidably include a visit to the Dead Sea and Petra; however, guests likewise have astonishment by the stunning global food plans of Amman and the modern urban areas they can visit. Though small, the nation has been at the focal point of the absolute most noteworthy exchange courses for quite a long time. The Roman, Greek, Persian, Nabataean, and Byzantine Empires have all ruled over this zone, each adding special and fabulous ancient rarities that you can, in any case, discover, which means history lovers will discover bounty to write.

 AMMAN — Jordan’s award-winning vocal ensemble Mosaica Singers put on a thrilling performance Thursday night at the Terra Santa College Theatre. It was the opening event in the series of three performances held over the weekend.

 All domestic tourism destinations are now open at full capacity for locals and expatriates residing in Jordan, COVID-19 is being effectively monitored, controlled and treated in Jordan.

 AMMAN — In spite of the widespread destruction of cultural heritage, a team of experts and interns recently finished digitising a private photo archive as part of a bid to save Jordan’s records and provide people with a resource to study the country’s history.

 (Jordan - Sunday, July 5th The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced today that the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) has awarded Jordan the “Safe Travels Stamp” thanks to Jordan’s health safety protocols that were deemed to be in line with the Council’s standards, which makes Jordan a safe destination for Travel & Tourism.

 AMMAN — Denouncing the misrepresentation of Jordanian life and culture in films, many aspiring local directors and actors are striving to break the mould by zooming in on an accurate display of daily life in the Kingdom.

 AMMAN — The Museum of Jordanian Heritage (MJH), initiated by Yarmouk University in Irbid in 1988, aims to present the social history of not only Jordan, but also the region since the dawn of civilisation, said a Jordanian scholar.

 AMMAN — Visitors to the rose-red city of Petra rose by 44 per cent, or some 128,000 people, when comparing the first five months of 2019 with 2018, Jordan Tourism Board (JTB) Managing Director Abed Al Razzaq Arabiyat said on Tuesday.

 AMMAN — The Aqaba Bird Observatory (ABO) has registered sightings of the migratory oystercatcher, which is locally considered a rare bird.

 AMMAN — The Kingdom welcomed 615,955 foreign visitors by the end of May, 76 per cent of which were overnight visitors, the Jordan Tourism Board (JTB) said on Sunday.

 AMMAN — During late antiquity, wealthy women often travelled from western parts of the Roman Empire to visit holy sites and shrines in the Levant and Egypt, according to an archaeologist.

 AMMAN — The latest excavations of ancient Pella (modern Tabaqat Fahl) in the Jordan Valley uncovered beautiful art tools from a large stone building that archaeologists believe was the ruler’s palace, according to an Australian scholar.

 AMMAN — Known locally as Khatt Shebib, Jordan’s own “great wall” is the second-longest structure built by humans next to the Great Wall of China, according to a Jordanian scholar.

 AMMAN — During an excavation work carried out by the German-Danish team in Jerash, remains of a building constructed on the bedrock and destroyed by the earthquake in 749AD were found.

 AMMAN — During 2019, Petra witnessed unprecedented trourist activity, ending the year with a record number of 1,135,300 visitors of all nationalities, an increase of 37 per cent compared with 2018.

 AMMAN — A new wave of luxurious camps have been spreading across Wadi Rum, contributing to attracting more tourists to the protected area, also known as the “valley of the moon”.

AMMAN — Istanbul, Sharm El Sheikh and Prague top Jordanians preferred destinations during this holiday season, according to travel agencies.

 AMMAN — During the Umayyad period, a freed slave would become a “mawla” (client) of their former master, and non-Arab converts would become the client of the person who witnessed their conversion, said a British historian.

 AMMAN — The Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN) on Sunday celebrated Feynan Ecolodge receiving the “Golden Award” at the World Travel Market (WTM) Travel and Tourism Awards 2019 in the category of reducing carbon and other greenhouse gases.

 AMMAN — Some 1.9 million passengers travelled through Queen Alia International Airport (QAIA) during the first three months of the year (Q1-2019), according to a statement sent to The Jordan Times on Thursday.

 AMMAN — Aqaba is expected to celebrate 1 million tourists by the end of 2019, Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority (ASEZA) said on Tuesday.

 AMMAN — A team of scholars involved in the North-Eastern Petra Project (NEPP) investigated for the first time a whole quarter of the ancient city and not merely a single building.

 AMMAN — Official statistics issued by the Airport International Group revealed that Queen Alia International Airport (QAIA) received 1,053,225 passengers (PAX) during August 2019, indicating a 5.1 per cent surge set against the same month last year.

 AMMAN — The operational revenues of Royal Jordanian (RJ) in 2018 reached JD653.3 million compared to JD605.8 million in 2017, marking an increase of 8 per cent of JD47.5 million, Chairman of RJ’s Board of Directors Said Darwazah announced on Sunday.