Jordan Tours and News

 AMMAN — “Collecting artefacts is a part of our nature, it is after all a human trait”, said Jordanian archaeologist and museum specialist Arwa Badran.

 AMMAN — The Petra Development and Tourism Region Authority (PDTRA) Chief Commissioner Suleiman Farajat on Sunday said the number of visitors to Petra increased by approximately 33 per cent during May, compared with the same period last year.

 JERASH — As numbers of visitors continue to grow, Jerash Archaeological Park has received 20 per cent more tourists during first third of this year than the same period of 2018, an official said.

 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 — 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 — A rescue excavation by the Department of Antiquities (DoA) of Jordan has uncovered a basalt statue in the forum area near the Roman Theatre in the downtown of Amman, described by an expert as “a unique and important archaeological discovery”.

 AMMAN — The Jerash Tourism Directorate has picked the locations of three new tourism trails planned to open this summer, according to the head of the directorate.

 AMMAN — Direct flights that will be operated between Aqaba and Egypt and will contribute to increasing the number of visitors to Aqaba, an official said on Sunday.

 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 — Wadi Hammeh 27, located 2 kilometres north of Pella, represents one of the largest and most complex Natufian base-camps in the southern Levant, an Australian archaeologist has said.

 AMMAN — In a recent conference held at Brooklyn University, New York, Jordanian architect Salam Adayleh discussed her project of “bringing old cities back to life”.

 AMMAN — The winners of the “Our Heritage, Our Identity” student video competition were announced at a ceremony on Saturday at the historic Odeon Theatre in Amman.

 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 — 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”.

 JERASH — Minister of Industry, Trade and Supply Tareq Hammouri on Wednesday opened the “Jerash Mouneh Exhibition”, an event where members of Jerash’s local community exhibited their foodstuff products.

 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 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 – A total of 138,110 people visited Petra during April of this year, the highest number ever in the history of the ancient city as a tourist attraction, according to the Petra Development and Tourism Region Authority (PDTRA).

 AMMAN — New finds at Tell Deir Alla in the Jordan Valley contradict previously published results that the north side of the site was used for cultic purposes, according to a Jordanian archaeologist.

 AMMAN — Jordan’s tourism revenues during the first third of the year (T1-2019) have increased by 6.1 per cent to $1.7 billion, approximately JD1.2 billion, compared with around $1.6 billion generated in the same period last year.

 AMMAN — In contrast with the area of Wadi Musa, Beidha is still free from modern development, so the natural landscape is still unspoiled and the archaeological heritage is still accessible to researchers, according to an Italian 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 — Just as he walked into Wadi Rum, actor Will Smith envisioned how to infuse his awe-inspiring experience into the character he is playing in Disney’s live action remake of “Aladdin”.

 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.

 AMMAN — Queen Alia International Airport (QAIA) welcomed 804,153 passengers in April, a 10.6 per cent increase over last year’s numbers for the same period, according to a statement from the Airport International Group on Monday.

 AMMAN — At the age of 12, Jacir Eid received an opportunity to take up a role in the Jordanian movie “Theeb”. At the time, he did not have any clue how this movie would later shape the course of his future.

 JERASH — Jerash’s second Labaneh Festival drew customers from around the Kingdom on Friday who came to sample and buy homemade dairy products.

 AMMAN — Aqaba welcomed over 72,000 visitors from all around the Kingdom during the Eid Al Fitr holiday, Sharhabeel Madi, commissioner for economic development and investment affairs at the Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority (ASEZA), said on Sunday.

 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 — Ryanair on Thursday announced four new routes to Amman and Aqaba for winter, citing an expected rise in the number of visitors to the Kingdom.