This is a list of archaeological sites in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan organised by governorate.
Jerash is a city in northern Jordan. The city is the administrative center of the Jerash Governorate, and has a population of 50,745 as of 2015. It is located 48 kilometres (30 mi) north of the capital city Amman.
Bab edh-Dhra is the site of an Early Bronze Age city located near the Dead Sea, on the south bank of Wadi Kerak with dates in the EB IB, EB II, EB III and EB IVA. Bab edh-Dhra was discovered in 1924 on an expedition led by William F. Albright.
Umm ar-Rasas, ancient name: Kastron Mefa'a, is located 30 km southeast of Madaba in the Amman Governorate in central Jordan. It was once accessible by branches of the King's Highway, and is situated in the semi-arid steppe region of the Jordanian Desert. The site has been associated with the biblical settlement of Mephaat mentioned in the Book of Jeremiah. The Roman military utilized the site as a strategic garrison, but it was later converted and inhabited by Christian and Islamic communities. In 2004, the site was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and is valued by archaeologists for its extensive ruins dating to the Roman, Byzantine, and early Muslim periods. The Franciscan academic society in Jerusalem, Studium Biblicum Franciscanum (SBF), carried out excavations at the north end of the site in 1986, but much of the area remains buried under debris.
Amman Governorate, officially known as Muhafazat al-Asima, is one of the governorates in Jordan. The governorate's capital is the city of Amman, which is also the country's capital. The administrative center of the governorate as well as all government offices and parliament are located in the Abdali district.
Hisham's Palace, also known as Khirbat al-Mafjar, is an important early Islamic archaeological site in the Palestinian city of Jericho, in the West Bank. Built by the Umayyad dynasty in the first half of the 8th century, it is one of the so-called Umayyad desert castles. It is located 3 km north of Jericho's city center, in an area governed by the Palestinian National Authority (PNA).
Qasr Harrana, sometimes Qasr al-Kharana, Harana, Qasr al-Harrana, Qasr al-Haranah, Haraneh, Khauranee, or Hraneh, is one of the best-known of the desert castles located in present-day eastern Jordan, about 60 kilometres (37 mi) east of Amman and relatively close to the border with Saudi Arabia. It is uncertain when the palace was constructed, but it likely originates from the Umayyad Dynasty. An inscription on an upper wall dates the building to before 710 CE. A Greek or Byzantine house may have existed on the site. The purpose of the building is a subject of debate among scholars. Theories as to the qasr's purpose include a Crusader's castle, a military stronghold, agricultural outpost, and resting place for caravan travelers. The current scholarly consensus is that the building was used as for meeting between local Bedouin leaders.
The Madaba Map, also known as the Madaba Mosaic Map, is part of a floor mosaic in the early Byzantine church of Saint George in Madaba, Jordan.
The district "Liwaa" are the administrative centres in Jordan. The twelve governorates of Jordan contain fifty-two alwiya which are listed below by governorate. In many cases the name of the chief town is the same as the name of the district (liwa) or sub-district (qadaa) administered.
Jordan is a sovereign Arab state in the Middle East. The capital, Amman, is Jordan's most populous city as well as the country's economic, political and cultural centre.
The desert castles or qasrs are often called Umayyad desert castles, since the vast majority of these fortified palaces or castles were built by the Umayyad Dynasty in their province of Bilad ash-Sham, with very few Abbasid exceptions. The desert castles of Jordan represent a prominent part of this group of buildings, with most Umayyad "desert castles" being scattered over the semi-arid regions of north-eastern Jordan, with several more in Syria, Israel and the West Bank (Palestine), and just one Abbasid exception in Iraq.
Jordanian art has a very ancient history. Some of the earliest figurines, found at Aïn Ghazal, near Amman, have been dated to the Neolithic period. A distinct Jordanian aesthetic in art and architecture emerged as part of a broader Islamic art tradition which flourished from the 7th-century. Traditional art and craft is vested in material culture including mosaics, ceramics, weaving, silver work, music, glass-blowing and calligraphy. The rise of colonialism in North Africa and the Middle East, led to a dilution of traditional aesthetics. In the early 20th-century, following the creation of the independent nation of Jordan, a contemporary Jordanian art movement emerged and began to search for a distinctly Jordanian art aesthetic that combined both tradition and contemporary art forms.
Early Byzantine mosaics in the Middle East are a group of Christian mosaics created between the 4th and the 8th centuries in ancient Syria, Palestine and Egypt when the area belonged to the Byzantine Empire. The eastern provinces of the Eastern Roman Empire and its continuation, the Byzantine Empire, inherited a strong artistic tradition from pagan Late Antiquity. The tradition of making mosaics was carried on in the Umayyad era until the end of the 8th century. The great majority of these works of art were later destroyed but archeological excavations unearthed many surviving examples.
Tell Johfiyeh is an archeological site in the village of Johfiyeh, Jordan, which dates back to the Iron Age. It is at the northern edge of the modern village of Johfiyeh, 7.5 km south-west of Irbid, in an intensive agriculture area.
Hammam al-Sarah is an Umayyad bathhouse (hammam) in Jordan, built in connection with the complex of Qasr al-Hallabat, which stands some 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) to the west. Along with examples in the other desert castles of Jordan, it is one of the oldest surviving remains of a Muslim bathhouse.
Khirbet edh-Dharih is a multi-period archaeological site which mainly flourished during the Nabataean period, when a prosperous settlement with a religious sanctuary stood there. The site is located on the King's Highway in southern Jordan, about 70 km north of the ancient Nabataean capital city, Petra, or in caravaning terms at the 3rd station from it, the nearest modern town being Tafileh. The earliest signs of human habitation at the site are from the Neolithic period and more specifically the Pottery Neolithic A (PNA) period, circa 6000-4000 BCE.
Khirbet al-Mukhayyat, also commonly known as the town of Nebo, is a village in Madaba Governorate in Jordan. The village is about 3.5 km from Mount Nebo, also known as Siyagha. Many Byzantine churches were found in the village, including the Church of Saint Lot and Saint Procopius, the church of St. George, and the al-Kaniseh Monastery located a short distance down in a valley below the hill. The town also contains material culture from a wide range of phases from the Chalcolithic to the Ottoman period including several Hellenistic features, an Iron Age fort, and a number of caves, tombs, cisterns and agricultural infrastructure.
Khirbet es-Sar is an archaeological site in Jordan. It lies in the western suburb of modern Amman, on the edge of a plateau. In the MEGA Jordan database, which stores information about sites located in Jordan, Khirbet es-Sar can be found under numbers 11304 and 3007.
Michele Piccirillo (1944–2008) was a Franciscan priest and expert in Byzantine archaeology. He is credited with advancing the study of early Byzantine archaeology, and especially the study of mosaics, in Jordan, Palestine and Syria.
The Umm ar-Rasas mosaics are a number of Byzantine mosaics discovered by Michele Piccirillo in the ruins of the Church of St. Stephen in Umm ar-Rasas, Jordan, in 1986.
