Great Seven Hills Metropolis King Abdollah selected Amman for the capital of Hashemite Kingdom in 1920. Amman is located in north-western part of Jordan as «90» kilometers from Jerusalem. The modern city of Amman, where almost the same place that left by the old city «Ammon». It also named as «Philadelphia», which means brotherly love to the Romans. During the long historical period of Amman, the Chaldean s and Assyrians, Persians, Alhecsus, Greece and the Romans has left behind many of the effects of which are «Roman amphitheater» with a capacity for about five thousand spectators.

Amman (Ammān, Rabat Ammon) is the capital and largest city of Jordan. It is the country's political, cultural and commercial centre and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. The Greater Amman area has a population of 2,842,629 as of 2010. The population of Amman is expected to jump from 2.8 million to almost 6.5 million by 2025 due to constant and rapid immigration. The recent economic growth experienced in Amman is unmatched by any other Arab city except those located in the Gulf. Amman is also the administrative seat of the homonymous governorate. Amman is also ranked a Gamma global city on the World city index.

Amman was named one of the MENA's best cities according to economic, labour, environmental, and socio-cultural factors. Amman is among the most popular locations for multinational corporations to set up their regional offices, alongside Doha and only behind Dubai. Furthermore, it is expected that in the next 10 years these three cities will capture the largest share of multinational corporation activity in the region. It is a major tourist destination in the region and the capital is especially popular among Gulf tourists. Amman is considered one of the richest and most Western-oriented cities in the Middle East.

During its long history, Amman has been inhabited by several civilizations. The first civilization on record is during the Neolithic period, around 10050 BC, when archaeological discoveries in "Ain Ghazal", located in eastern Amman, showed evidence of not only a settled life but also the growth of artistic work, which suggests that a well-developed civilization inhabited the city at that time.

 In the 13th century BC Amman was called Rabbath Ammon or Rabat Amon by the Ammonites. In the Hebrew Bible, it is referred to as Rabbat ʿAmmon (Tiberian Hebrew Rabbaṯ ʿAmmôn). It was later conquered by the Assyrians, followed by the Persians, and then the Macedonians. Ptolemy II Philadelphus, the Macedonian ruler of Egypt, renamed it Philadelphia. The city became part of the Nabataean kingdom until 106 AD when Philadelphia came under Roman control and joined the Decapolis.

Philadelphia became the seat of a bishopric during the beginning of the Byzantine era. One of the churches of this period can be seen on the city's Citadel. Philadelphia was renamed Amman during the Ghassanian era, and flourished under the Caliphates (with nearby capital) of the Umayyads (in Damascus) and the Abbasids (in Baghdad).

 It was then destroyed by several earthquakes and natural disasters and remained a small village and a pile of ruins until the Circassians settlement in 1878. The tide changed when the Ottoman Sultan decided to build the Hejaz railway, linking Damascus and Medina, facilitating both the annual hajj pilgrimage and permanent trade, putting Amman, a major station, back on the commercial map.

In 1921, Abdullah I chose Amman instead of As-Salt as seat of government for his newly created state, the Emirate of Transjordan, and later as the capital of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. As there was no palatial building, he started his reign from the station, with his office in a train car. Amman remained a small city until 1949, and 1963, when the population expanded considerably due to an influx of Palestinian refugees from what is now Occupied Territories. Amman has experienced exceptionally rapid development since 2010 under the leadership of two Hashemite Kings, Hussein of Jordan and Abdullah II of Jordan.

In 1970, Amman was the site of major clashes between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Jordanian army. Everything around the Royal Palace sustained heavy damage from shelling. The city's population continues to expand at a rapid pace (fueled by refugees escaping the wartime events in the West Bank and Iraq). The city received refugees from these countries on a number of occasions. The first wave of Palestinian refugees arrived from Palestine in 1948.

A second wave arrived after the Six-Day War in 1967. A third wave of Palestinian and Jordanian and Southeast Asians, working as domestic workers, refugees arrived in Amman from Kuwait after the Gulf War of 1991. The first wave of Iraqi refugees settled in the city after the first Gulf War, with a second wave also arriving after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. During the last 10 years the number of new buildings within the city has increased dramatically with new districts of the city being founded at a very rapid pace (particularly so in West Amman), straining the very scarce water supplies of Jordan as a whole, and exposing Amman to the hazards of rapid expansion in the absence of careful municipal planning.

Amman is situated in a hilly area of north-western Jordan. The city was originally built on seven hills, but it now spans over an area of nineteen hills (each known as a Jabal, Tál, Mount or Mountain). The main areas of Amman gain their names from the hills and mountains on whose slopes they lie. The city's elevation changes from mountain to mountain. They range from 700 to 1100 m (2300–3600 feet).

Climate

Amman has a semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification BSk) with long, hot and dry summers and wet and cool winters with a mediterranean (dry-summer) rainfall pattern. It also has an influence of the continental climate because of its inland location and highland climate because of its high elevation. Amman's location and altitude has a profound effect on its climate Spring is brief, mild and lasts a little less than a month, from April to May, with rain during the morning and the afternoons. High temperatures are around 15 °C (59 °F) to 20 °C (68 °F) and lows are sometimes less than 10 °C (50 °F) and several times even go near 0 °C (32 °F) causing several freezes. The temperatures vary though due to the differences in elevation across Amman.

Amman has moderate summers starting from mid June to mid September. Summer's high temperatures range from 25 °C (77 °F) to 30 °C (86 °F), usually with low humidity and frequent cool breezes. Most summers are rain-free with cloudless skies during the noon period and a brief shower or fog during the night-time. The summer's pleasant temperatures can be disturbed by heat-waves that suddenly raise the city's temperatures to around 35 °C (95 °F) and in some rare but recorded cases to as high as 41 °C (106 °F) such as during the summer of 1999. A much more common weather inconvenience is the sudden drop in temperatures, which occurs during many summer nights accompanied by moderate winds and in many cases fog.

Winter usually starts in late November or early December and continues to late April. Temperatures are usually near or below 0 °C (32 °F), with snow usually falling a few times each year. Due to its high altitude above sea level, winter in Amman is usually one of the coldest in any major city in the Levant or south-east of Europe and the surrounding countries; winters are usually foggy with at least 120 days of heavy fog per year. Snowy winter storms occur several times around the city. Due to the difference in elevation, snow may accumulate in the western parts of Amman (an average altitude of 1000 m above sea level) when at the same time it would be raining in the city centre (776 metre elevation). It can snow anywhere between November and until the end of March- more frequently at the higher elevations (900 – 1100 meters) which occupy vast parts of the city. On average at least one severe snow storm every few years will accumulate up to 15 or 20 inches of snow (40 to 50 centimeters) at higher altitudes in Amman and surrounding areas.

Note: The temperatures listed below are taken from the weather station at the center of the city which is at an elevation of 767 meters above sea level. At higher elevations, the temperatures will be lower. For example, in areas such as Al-Jubaiha, Sweileh, Khalda, Abu Nseir and other areas which are at 1000 meters and above have average temperatures of 7 to 9 degrees Celsius in the day and 1 to 3 degrees Celsius at night in January. In August, the average high temperatures in these areas are 26 to 28 degrees Celsius in the day and an average of 14 to 16 degrees Celsius at night.