Theme Week Jordan – Zarqa
Wednesday, 22 March 2017 - 12:00 pm (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination: Levant / Levante General , Union for the Mediterranean
Reading Time: 4 minutes
Zarqa River Valley © defenseimagery.mil – Jim Greenhill
🔊 Listen to this Post
Zarqa is situated 15 miles (24 km) from
Amman , in a northeastern most direction and is the capital of
Zarqa Governorate . Its name means “the blue one”.
Russeifa , the second largest city in the governorate and the fourth largest city in
Jordan , is located half way between Zarqa and Amman. Zarqa is Jordan’s industrial center. It is home to over 50% of Jordanian factories. The growth of industry in the city is the result of low real estate costs and proximity to the capital Amman. Several facilities that are vital to Jordan’s economy are based in Zarqa, such as Jordan’s only oil refinery plant. According to the Zarqa Chamber of Commerce, 10% of Jordan’s total exports in 2011 came from Zarqa Governorate. Leather and garment products constituted about 52% of Zarqa’a exports, followed by chemical, agricultural and pharmaceutical products.
There are three universities in Zarqa, the largest of which is Hashemite University . The other two are Al-Balqa` Applied University and Zarqa University . Other community colleges and research centers are based in Zarqa such as the Al-Zarqa Educational & Investment. Also, there are many secondary schools (or high schools) in Zarqa, most notably is the Zarqa Secondary School for Boys which is considered one of the oldest high schools in Jordan.
Zarqa University - Faculty of Engineering © Alaa zuhdi/cc-by-sa-3.0
Although inhabited since the 1st century, the city of Zarqa was established by immigrants from the
Caspian Sea region at the beginning of the 20th century. The first settlement in the city was established in 1902 by
Chechen immigrants who were displaced from the wars between the
Ottoman and
Russian Empires . They settled along the Zarqa River. At that time a station on the
Hejaz Railway was built in the new settlement. The railway station turned Zarqa into an important hub. On 10 April 1905, the Ottoman governor issued a decree that allowed the Chechen immigrants to own lands which they settled on. The population then quickly grew in size. On 18 November 1928, the new Jordanian government issued a decree to establish the first municipal council for Zarqa.
Zarqa is connected by the
Hejaz Railway to Amman to the south and to
Syria to the north. A new railway is currently under construction to connect Amman with Zarqa. Zarqa lies on the international highway that connects
Saudi Arabia with Syria and on the international Amman-
Baghdad highway.
Here you can find the complete
Overview of all Theme Weeks .
Read more on
LonelyPlanet.com – Zarqa and
Wikipedia Zarqa . Learn more about the
use of photos . To inform you about latest news most of the city, town or tourism websites offer a newsletter service and/or operate Facebook pages/Twitter accounts. In addition more and more destinations, tourist organizations and cultural institutions offer Apps for your Smart Phone or Tablet, to provide you with a mobile tourist guide (
Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State -
Weather report by weather.com -
Global Passport Power Rank -
Travel Risk Map -
Democracy Index -
GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank -
Global Competitiveness Report -
Corruption Perceptions Index -
Press Freedom Index -
World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index -
UN Human Development Index -
Global Peace Index -
Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index ). If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at
comment@wingsch.net . Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.
VIDEO
Recommended posts:
[caption id="attachment_27875" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © Dickbauch~commonswiki/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Wahnfried was the name given by Richard Wagner to his villa in Bayreuth. The name is a German compound of Wahn (delusion, madness) and Fried(e), (peace, freedom). According to Richard Wagner's wife Cosima the name came to mind after visiting the picturesque town of Wahnfried in Hesse.
The house was constructed from 1872 to 1874 under Carl Wölfel's supervision after plans from Berlin architect W...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_196249" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Banjarmasin Floating Market © Muhammad Haris/cc-by-sa-4.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Borneo is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and east of Sumatra. The island is politically divided among three countries: Malaysia and Brunei in the north, and Indonesia to the south. Approximately 73% of the islan...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_228765" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Town Hall and Market Square © Immanuel Giel/cc-by-sa-4.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Oppenheim is a town in the Mainz-Bingen district of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The town is a well-known wine center, being the home of the German Winegrowing Museum, and is particularly known for the wines from the Oppenheimer Krötenbrunnen vineyards. The town lies on the Upper Rhine in Rhenish Hesse between Mainz and Worms. It is the seat of the Verbandsgemeinde (special admin...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_235476" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © Chensiyuan/cc-by-sa-4.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Polperro (Cornish: Porthpyra, meaning Pyra's cove) is a large village, civil parish, and fishing harbour within the Polperro Heritage Coastline in south Cornwall, England. Its population is around 1,554. Polperro, through which runs the River Pol, is 7 miles (11 km) east of Fowey and 4 miles (6 km) west of the neighbouring town of Looe and 25 miles (40 km) west of the major city and naval port of Plymouth. It is ...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_223741" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Stage © Pierre Schoberth/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Margravial Opera House (German: Markgräfliches Opernhaus) is a Baroque opera house in the town of Bayreuth, Germany, built between 1745 and 1750. It is one of Europe's few surviving theatres of the period and has been extensively restored. On 30 June 2012, the opera house was inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List. It was built according to plans designed by the French architect Joseph Saint...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_233934" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Garden of Gethsemane © Tango7174/cc-by-sa-4.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Gethsemane is a garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem where, according to the ...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_230207" align="aligncenter" width="590"] University of the Mediterranean Aix-Marseille II in Marseille © Georges Seguin/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Aix-Marseille University (AMU; French: Aix-Marseille Université; formally incorporated as Université d'Aix-Marseille) is a public research university located in the Provence region of southern France. It was founded in 1409 when Louis II of Anjou, Count of Provence, petitioned the Pisan Antipope Alexander V to establish the University of Provence...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_224961" align="aligncenter" width="590"] View from Altpörtel tower towards Speyer Cathedral © Roman Eisele/cc-by-sa-4.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Speyer is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany with approximately 50,000 inhabitants. Located on the left bank of the river Rhine, Speyer lies 25 km (16 miles) south of Ludwigshafen and Mannheim, and 21 km (13 miles) south-west of Heidelberg. Founded by the Romans, it is one of Germany's oldest cities.
Speyer Cathedral (since 1981 a UNESCO World H...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_27265" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Al-Khuwair neighborhood © Joe Castleman/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Muscat is the capital of Oman. It is also the seat of government and largest city in the Governorate of Muscat. According to the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI), the total population of Muscat Governorate reached 1.2 million as of April 2014. The metropolitan area spans approximately 3,500 km2 (1,400 sq mi) and includes six provinces called wilayats. Known since the...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_153853" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Meteora Panorama © Exwhysee[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Metéora ("suspended rocks", "suspended in the air" or "in the heavens above" - etymologically similar to "Meteorite") is one of the largest and most important complexes of Eastern Orthodox monasteries in Greece, second only to Mount Athos. The six monasteries are built on natural sandstone rock pillars, at the northwestern edge of the Plain of Thessaly near the Pineios river and Pindus Mountains, in centra...
[ read more ]
