So this is yet another ancient-ruin-aesthetic post but I feel it’s almost obligatory to record memories of visiting ruins given how it’s so few and far between in the world. I am also always touched with wonderment when studying ruins from this part of the world – it really expands my curiosity for previous grandeurs of past civilisations, and the lives they used to lead. The ruins in Amman’s Citadel particularly were so fascinating because it appears to have been a fusion of so many different empires crossing through, some of whose marriages are no longer evident in the modern world. Hellenistic, Roman, Umayyad, Byzantine and Ayubbid footprints make up this site and even hundreds and hundreds of years before the Greeks came, there were remnants of human presence from the Middle Bronze Age.

We came here on a beautifully sunny winter – always a great oxymoron. The citadel is perched on one of the highest points in the city so not only do we get to inspect through the different structures, but we could also observe the city from a great height.