Culture, design & architecture

The city’s oldest hill: the Temple of Hercules, an Umayyad palace and a small archaeological museum, with the best view in Amman.

A 2nd-century theatre cut into the hillside, with folklore and popular-traditions museums in its wings.

A small Roman concert hall beside the theatre, facing the plaza where families gather in the evening.

The remains of a Roman public fountain in the middle of downtown, close to the Grand Husseini Mosque.

The national museum: the ’Ain Ghazal statues, among the oldest in the world, and fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Closed on Tuesdays; on Fridays it opens only in the afternoon.

The Hashemite family’s cars and motorbikes, telling Jordan’s modern history through the vehicles of its kings.

Bedouin tents, costumes and musical instruments in a wing of the Roman Theatre.

The Khalid Shoman Foundation’s art centre: restored 1920s houses, a Byzantine church ruin and a garden above downtown. Free.

Modern and contemporary art from Jordan, the Arab world and beyond, in two buildings facing a small park.

Jabal Amman’s long street of old houses, cafés and craft shops; best on a cool evening.