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Just 60 meters above the two dry
valleys that slope towards the East, one leading to Wadi Saqra and
the other to Abdali, and commanding their meeting point below, the
site of Darat al Funun displays some geomorphological qualities
similar to those of the Amman Citadel. Both sites are attached to
bigger hills to the West, surrounded by valleys in other directions.
The main difference between the site of the Citadel and Jabal Weibdeh,
besides the latter being higher and larger, is the smaller connection
of the citadel site to Jabal al Hussein. This neck, being less than
50 meters wide, made the site almost fully detached, and thus easier
to protect by complementing natural defenses with a fortification
wall a solution that Ammonites of the 7th century BC as well as
the Philadelphians put to use. |
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Downtown
Amman 1949 with the ArabBank building
The
main house of Darat al Funun occupies a strategic location at the
Eastern tip of what is now called Jabal Weibdeh. Fragments of Roman
pottery and architecture, the remains of the Byzantine church with
caves and cisterns, and other vestiges of different Islamic periods
tell us that this very location was chosen by many in the past as
a desirable site for building. 
