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OFFICIAL NAME: The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

POPULATION: 5,759,732,000 people  (updated in July 2005).

CAPITAL: Amman.

MAIN CITIES: Amman, Zarqa, Aqaba, Irbid, Salt.

OFFICIAL LANGUAGE: Arabic, Although English is used in commerce and by many Jordanians.

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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 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.

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.

Visas

 Valid passport, visas may be obtained in advance from Jordanian Consulates and Embassies. Visas may also be issued on arrival in Jordan.  [more...]

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