Amman

Amman (.mw-parser-output .IPA-label-small{font-size:85%}.mw-parser-output .references .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .infobox .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .navbox .IPA-label-small{font-size:100%}UK: /əˈmɑːn/ ə-MAHN, US: /ɑːˈmɑːn/ ah-MAHN; Arabic: عَمَّان, romanized: ʿAmmān, pronounced [ʕaˈmːaːn])[5][6] is the capital and the largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center.[7] With a population of four million as of 2021, Amman is Jordan's primate city and is the largest city in the Levant region, the fifth-largest city in the Arab world, and the tenth-largest metropolitan area in the Middle East.[8] The earliest evidence of settlement in Amman dates to the 8th millennium BC in 'Ain Ghazal, home to the world's oldest statues of the human form. The city was known as Rabat Aman during the 2nd millennium BC, serving as the capital of the Ammonite Kingdom that was centered at the Amman Citadel. In the 3rd century BC, the city was renamed Philadelphia and became one of the ten Greco-Roman cities of the Decapolis. Later, in the 7th century AD, the Rashidun Caliphate renamed the city Amman. Throughout most of the Islamic era, the city alternated between periods of devastation and abandonment and periods of relative prosperity. Amman was largely abandoned from the 15th century until 1878, when the Ottoman Empire authorities began settling Circassians there, witnessing growth after 1904, leading to the establishment of its first municipal council in 1909.[9]