Facts about Jordan
Jordan has followed a pro-Western foreign policy and traditionally has had close relations with the United States and the United Kingdom.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq, a group led by terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a native Jordanian, claimed responsibility.
Jordan has a law that states that any Palestinian may immigrate and obtain Jordanian citizenship, but must surrender his or her Palestinian status.
Jordan's political and social systems are centered around extended patriarchal family units based on ancestry and wealth.
Notable aspects of the culture include the music of Jordan as well as an interest in sports, particularly football (soccer) and basketball as well as other imported sports mainly from the west.
Abdullah moved quickly to reaffirm Jordan's peace treaty with Israel and its relations with the United States.
The ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict, the Gulf War, and other conflicts in the Middle East have made huge impacts on Jordan's economy.
Jordan's principal religion is Islam, and its main language is Arabic.
The ancient biblical kingdoms of Moab, Gilead, and Edom are there, as well as the Jordan River where Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist.
Jordan consists mostly of an arid desert plateau in the east, with a highland area in the west.
On November 9, 2005, Jordan sustained three simultaneous bombings at hotels in Amman.
A few Lebanese have settled in Jordan since the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict.
Sporadic violence continued, however, until Jordanian forces led by Habis Al-Majali, won a decisive victory over the fedayeen in July 1971, expelling them from the country.
Jordan gave up a relatively large area of inland desert in return for a small piece of sea-shore near Aqaba.
Jordan's export market, which depends on exports to Iraq, was affected by the war but recovered quickly while contributing to the Iraq recovery effort.
The U.S. has participated with Jordan and Israel in discussions on water-sharing and security; cooperation on Jordan Rift Valley development; infrastructure projects; and trade, finance, and banking issues.
No fighting occurred along the 1967 Jordan River cease-fire line during the October 1973 Arab-Israeli war, but Jordan sent a brigade to Syria to fight Israeli units on Syrian territory.
A young nation, Jordan occupies an area considered one of the 15 cradle-of-civilization nations and is thus the home to many historical sites and ruins of ancient civilations.
Following the fall of the Iraqi regime, Jordan has helped restore the security of Iraq through the training of up to 30,000 Iraqi police cadets in Jordan.
Jordan has not accepted compulsory International Court of Justice jurisdiction.
Jordan's ruling class is made up of people of Bedouin Arab descent, most of whom originate from the Hejaz region in northwest Saudi Arabia and account for around 40-45 percent of the population.
The capital was at Jabiyah in the Golan Heights, and their rule covered much of Syria, Lebanon), Palestine, Jordan and the northern Hijaz as far south as Yathrib (Medina).
Following this approval, the Jordanian Parliament proclaimed King Abdullah the first ruler of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
Women in Jordan tend to have their lives controlled by their closest male relative.
The Bedouin singer Omar Al-Abdillat, and Diana Karazon, winner of the Arab version of Pop Idol, are perhaps Jordan's biggest stars, known for his patriotic song "Hashemi, Hashemi."
Before reaching Jordanian territory the river forms Lake Tiberias, the surface of which is 695 feet (212 meters) below sea level.
The battle in which Palestinian fighters from various Palestinian Liberation Organization groups were expelled from Jordan is commonly known as Black September.
In 1950, Transjordan annexed the West Bank, which had been under its control since the armistice that followed the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
Many Jordanians are of Turkish and East European descent, as many Jordanian expatriates who reside in East European countries marry there.
The Royal Armed Forces and General Intelligence Department of Jordan are under the control of the king.
The main challenges facing Jordan are reducing dependence on foreign grants, reducing the budget deficit, and attracting investment to promote job creation.
Jordan is also known to have quite a big underground heavy metal scene, with many bands reaching international audiences such as Augury, Ajdath, Bilocate, Darkcide, and others.
In 1946, the British requested that the United Nations approve an end to British Mandate rule in Transjordan.
The Great Rift Valley of the Jordan River separates Jordan and Israel.
Just over 10 percent of its land is arable, rainfall is low and highly variable, and much of Jordan's available ground water is not renewable.
From Mount Nebo in western Jordan, many people believe that Moses saw the Promised Land (c.1213 B.C.E.).
The fact that Jordan has peace with the surrounding countries, combined with its stability, has made it a preference for many Palestinians, Lebanese, and Persian Gulf immigrants and refugees.
Other well-known Jordanian musicians are Qamar Badwan, who won the golden prize in the 2000 Cairo Song Festival, percussionist Hani Naser, the pianist, and composer Khalid Asad.
The period following the 1967 war saw an upsurge in the power and importance of Palestinian resistance elements ("fedayeen") in Jordan.
Jordan is a small Arab country with insufficient supplies of water, oil, and other natural resources.
In 1965 there was an exchange of land between Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
Jordan signed a mutual defense pact in May 1967 with Egypt, and it participated in the June 1967 war against Israel along with Syria, Egypt, and Iraq.
One British man was killed and five other tourists wounded, including a Jordanian tourist security guard.
Near the junction of the two rivers, the Yarmuk forms the boundary between Israel on the northwest, Syria on the northeast, and Jordan on the south.
Jordan's economic resource base centers on phosphates, potash, and their fertilizer derivatives, tourism, overseas remittances, and foreign aid.
Lacking forests, coal reserves, hydroelectric power, or commercially-viable oil deposits, Jordan relies on natural gas for 10 percent of its domestic energy needs.
About three million people registered as Palestinian refugees and displaced persons reside in Jordan, most as citizens, and between 700,000 and 1.7 million Iraqis live in Jordan, mainly in Amman.
About 70 percent of Jordan's population is urban, while less than six percent of the rural population is nomadic or semi-nomadic.
Jordan’s area of more than 45,495 square miles (90,000 kmІ) is close to that of Maine, in the United States.
Jordan's continuing structural economic difficulties, burgeoning population, and more open political environment led to the emergence of a variety of political parties.
Football (soccer), that is the most-played game there, became increasingly popular, especially because of improvements in Jordan's National Football Team's FIFA results.
Administratively, Jordan is divided into 12 governorates, each headed by a governor appointed by the king.
In 1991, Jordan agreed, along with Syria, Lebanon, and Palestinian fedayeen representatives, to participate in direct peace negotiations with Israel at the Madrid Conference, sponsored by the U.S. and Russia.
Around the second half of the third millennium B.C.E., Semitic Amorites settled around the Jordan River in the area called Canaan and worshipped the god Amurru.
Jordan’s most famous poet is Mustafa Wahbi al-Tal, who is among the major Arab poets of the twentieth century.
The Edomite people were a Semitic-speaking tribal group inhabiting the Negev Desert and the Aravah valley of what is now southern Israel and adjacent Jordan.
Moving toward greater independence, Jordan's parliament has investigated corruption charges against several regime figures and has become the major forum in which differing political views, including those of political Islamists, are expressed.
Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the northeast, Saudi Arabia to the east and south, and both Israel and the West Bank to the west.
The music of Jordan can be distinguished from that of Syria and Saudi Arabia by its strong Bedouin influence.
The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, commonly called Jordan, is an Arab country in Southwest Asia and a part of the Middle East between the West Bank and Saudi Arabia.
The River Jordan is where Jesus Christ was baptised by John the Baptist.
The 1967 war led to a dramatic increase in the number of Palestinians, especially from the West Bank, living in Jordan.
Approximately 80 percent of the British Mandate of Palestine was east of the Jordan River and was known as "Transjordan."
The fact that Jordan has peace with the surrounding countries, combined with its stability, has made it a preference for many Palestinians, Lebanese, and Persian Gulf immigrants and refugees.
During the war, Jordan lost the West Bank and East Jerusalem to Israel (the western sector having been under Israeli control).
Jordan is one of the most politically liberal and advanced of the Arab nations, whose leaders have continually been committed to the peace process.
The U.S.-led war in Iraq in 2003 made Jordan more dependent on oil from other Gulf nations, and has forced the Jordanian Government to raise petrol product prices.
Abdullah I was assassinated in 1951 but the Hashemites continued to rule Transjordan under British supervision until after World War II.
Jordan is where the non-Arab world first contacted Islam more than 1500 years ago, and is the location of numerous tombs of the Prophet Mohammed's companions.
In 1989 and 1993, Jordan held free and fair parliamentary elections.
Michael JordanCharlotte HornetsCollegeNorth Carolina (1981–1984)NBA draft1984 / Round: 1 / Pick: 3rd overallSelected by the Chicago BullsPlaying career1984–1993, 1995–1998, 2001–200330 more rows
Marcus Jordan. Marcus James Jordan (born December 24, 1990) is an American former college basketball player who played for the UCF Knights men's basketball team of Conference USA. He is the son of Hall of Fame NBA player Michael Jordan.
Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963), also known by his initials, MJ, is an American retired professional basketball player, businessman, and principal owner and chairman of the Charlotte Hornets of the National Basketball Association (NBA).
Six championships, 10 time NBA scoring champion, never lost in the finals, multiple game winning shots, scored 38 points while he had the flu…..the list of Michael Jordan's accomplishments goes on and on. A comparison of LeBron to Jordan is almost unfair.Jun 21, 2013
Only four players have scored 60 or more points on more than one occasion: Wilt Chamberlain (32 times), Kobe Bryant (6 times), Michael Jordan (5 times), and Elgin Baylor (4 times). Chamberlain holds the single-game scoring record, having scored 100 in game in 1962.
People from Jordan are called Jordanians. Most of them speak Arabic as their first language. The population of Jordan is about 10.5 million people. Jordan is a constitutional monarchy and has a king.
A majority of Jordanians are Muslim, about 92% are Sunni Muslim, and 1% are Shia or Sufi. Cities in the south of Jordan, have the highest percentage of Muslims. Christians, living mostly in Amman or the Jordan Valley , make up 6% of the total, with 1% representing other religions.
The national dish of Jordan and the most distinctive Jordanian dish. Mansaf is a traditional dish made of lamb cooked in a sauce of fermented dried yogurt called Jameed and served with rice or bulgur. A casserole made of layers of rice, vegetables and meat.
Moon landing in Wadi Rum. Jordan's desert is, in a word, majestic. Its lunar-like landscape (Wadi Rum is also known as the Valley of the Moon), crevice-riddled cliffs and ever-evolving light inspire unbridled awe.
Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein (Arabic: عبد الله الثاني بن الحسين, ʿAbdullāh aṯ-ṯānī ibn Al-Ḥusayn, born 30 January 1962) has been King of Jordan since the 1999 death of his father, King Hussein.
Comprising around 75% of Jordan, this area of desert and desert steppe is part of what is known as the North Arab Desert. It stretches into Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, with elevations varying between 600 and 900 meters above sea level.
Jordan is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north, Israel and Palestine to the west. ... Jordan is strategically located at the crossroads of Asia, Africa and Europe.