General
Information
OFFICIAL NAME: The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
POPULATION: 4.0 million (est.).
CAPITAL: Amman.
MAIN CITIES: Amman, Zarqa, Aqaba, Irbid, Salt.
OFFICIAL LANGUAGE: Arabic, Although English is used in commerce
and by many Jordanians.
Visas
Valid passport, visas may be obtained in advance from Jordanian
Consulates and Embassies. Visas may also be issued on arrival in
Jordan.
Currency
The Jordanian Dinar (JD) is divided into 1,000 fils. (Some
Jordanians refer to piasters instead of fils. There are 100 piasters to
the dinar, so for example, 30 piasters = 300 fils.
Notes: 500
fils, 1, 5, 10, 20 dinars.
Coins: 5, 10, 25, 50, 100, 250,
500, 1,000 fils.
Travel
The Royal Jordanian Airline links Amman with many of the capitals
of Europe, South Asia and the Arab World, and operates wide body jets to
New York. Many other international air carriers also operate regularly
to Amman. The Queen Alia International Airport south of Amman is one of
the most modern facilities in the Middle East.
Good
international roads link Jordan with surrounding countries. Daily bus
service and weekly Hejaz Railway trains connect Amman with Damascus.
Taxi service is also available.
Travel within Jordan is
efficient and enjoyable. A good road system is constantly being expanded
and upgraded, and most of the sites a visitor would want to see are at
most within a few hours drive from Amman. Jordan's road signs are marked
in English and Arabic, and there are petrol stations and rest houses at
regular intervals throughout the country.
Shopping
Jordanian handicrafts represent a tradition of skilled workmanship
and art that dates back many thousands of years. The most common
Jordanian craft items include Madaba rugs, carved olive wood, mother of
pearl, cross stitch embroidery, Palestine pottery, Hebron glass, silver
jewelry, carved stone animals, Bedouin jewelry and artifacts, sheepskin
and leather goods and Aqaba's colored sand bottles. A walk through a
downtown souk will bring you in touch with hundreds of small everyday
items that you may wish to take home as a souvenir of your visit to
Jordan.
Hotels and Rest houses
Jordan is well equipped with five and four star hotels throughout
the country. Hotel and restaurant prices are controlled by the Ministry
of Tourism and the Ministry of Supply. Government rest houses with
sleeping and dining facilities are located at key tourist sites
throughout Jordan. Five star hotels are operated by local groups and
well known international chains such as Intercontinental, Marriot, SRS,
Forum and Trust house Forte.
Food
And Drink
Eating well is part of the Jordanian tradition, and there are many
fine restaurants that offer a wide selection of authentic Arabic food at
reasonable prices. Hotels offer a mixed menu of Arabic and continental
cuisine. Dishes to try are the national dish, mansaf, a whole stewed
lamb with cooked yoghourt sauce served on bed of rice; musakhan, chicken
with onions, olive oil, pine seeds and seasoning cooked in an oven on a
thick loaf of Arabic bread; maglouba, a meat or fish and vegetable stew
served with rice, and of course, the basic shish kebab, pieces of lamb,
marinated chicken and patties of minced and spiced lamb meat all cooked
over a char-coal fire with onions and tomatoes.
Locally
produced beer, wine and spirits are available throughout the country, as
are imported drinks. The local drink that is popular with Arabic dishes
is arak, an anise flavored liquor that is mixed with water and ice.
Communications
Excellent direct telephone, fax, telex communication is available
internationally.
Arabic and English Jordanian newspapers, as
well as foreign publications, are available at many newsstands.
Postage stamps can be purchased at hotels and post offices.
Electricity
220 volts ac, 50 Hz.
Weights and
measures
Metric System.
Time
Plus two hours Greenwich Mean Time.
Weather
|
Amman |
Aqaba |
| January |
8.1(46.5) |
15.6(60.0) |
| April |
16(60.8) |
24.3(75.7) |
| july |
25.1(77.2) |
32.5(90.0) |
| November |
15.3(59.5) |
22.1(71.7) |
Centigrade (Fahrenheit)
Spring and autumn are long and pleasant
throughout Jordan. Rain falls from November to March in the north, but
Aqaba on the Red Sea is a warm and sunny winter
resort.
Holidays
Friday is the official weekly day of
rest, though many Christian shopkeepers close on Sunday instead. Several
national holidays are observed on the same day every year: Labor Day
(may 1), Independence and Army Day (may 25), King Hussein's ascension to
the throne (august 11), and King Hussein's birthday (November 14).
Several Islamic religious holidays are observed, but their precise dates
vary by about two weeks every year, in line with the Islamic Lunar
calendar that is used to determine religious
holidays.
