Philadelphia (Amman) in the context of "Nabataeans"

Amman is the capital and the largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of five million as of 2024, 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 sixth-largest metropolitan area in the Middle East.

Amman is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. 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. During the Iron Age, the city was known as Rabat Aman, the capital of the Ammonite Kingdom. 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 periods of relative prosperity. Amman was largely abandoned during the Ottoman period from the 15th century until 1878, when it was resettled by Circassians. The city grew after it was connected to the Hejaz Railway in 1904, leading to the formation of its first municipal council in 1909.

Downtown Amman (Arabic: وسط البلد, romanized: Wasat Al-Balad) is the old town of Jordan's capital, Amman. Nestled in a narrow valley called Wadi Amman, the downtown is a popular tourist destination, known for its shopping souks and ancient ruins.

The Amman valley, surrounded by valleys, was historically crossed by the Seil stream. In the first millennium BC, the Ammonites settled atop a hill overlooking the valley. During the second century AD, the city - then known as Philadelphia - flourished under Roman rule, with landmarks such as a theater, an Odeon, and a Nymphaeum being built near the Seil. In the seventh century AD, an Umayyad mosque was built near a marketplace, later replaced by the Grand Husseini Mosque.

Arambourgiania (meaning "Camille Arambourg's") is a genus of pterosaur, an extinct group of flying reptiles, that inhabited Jordan during the Maastrichtian age of the Cretaceous period, around 72 to 66 million years ago. Additional fossil remains from the United States and Morocco have also been found, but their assignment to Arambourgiania is only tentative. The holotype (name-bearing) specimen was discovered in 1943 by a railway worker near Russeifa, Jordan. After examination of the specimen by paleontologist Camille Arambourg, he described it as belonging to a new genus and species in 1959, Titanopteryx philadelphiae. The generic name means "titan wing", as the fossil was initially misidentified as a wing metacarpal (it would be later identified as a cervical (neck) vertebra), while the specific name refers to the ancient name of Amman (the capital of Jordan), Philadelphia. The genus name "Titanopteryx" would later be problematic, as it had already been taken by a fly. Because of this, paleontologist Lev Nessov in 1989 renamed the genus to Arambourgiania, in honor of Arambourg. Since 1943, additional isolated remains including vertebrae, wing bones, and hindlimb bones have been assigned to the genus.

Due to the fragmentary nature of the Arambourgiania fossils, there is little direct information about its anatomy. Its cervical vertebrae are extremely elongated, with the holotype vertebra measuring 77–78 cm (2 ft 6.31 in – 2 ft 6.71 in) in length. Based on the complete neck of its relative Quetzalcoatlus, Arambourgiania had a total neck length of 3 m (9 ft 10 in), longer than those of giraffes. Its vertebrae were also more lightly built and weakly muscled than those of its robust, short-necked relative Hatzegopteryx. Arambourgiania is one of the largest flying animals ever discovered. Initial wingspan estimates ranged from 11 to 13 m (36 to 43 ft), which would have made it the largest known pterosaur. However, given the fragmentary remains, more recent research has suggested wingspans anywhere between 8 to 10 m (26 to 33 ft), which would still place the genus among the largest known flying animals.