File 756/1917 Pt 2-3 ‘ARAB BULLETIN Nos 66-114’ [‎56r] (120/834)

499
to the north of the last locality, appear the splendid spring of
Ain Hesban and ruins of the same name.
Amman .—The ancient Rabbath Ammon of the Bible, and
Philadelphia of the Grecian and Roman epoch, is one of the
finest ruins beyond Jordan ; its theatre can accommodate 1,000
spectators. The town is built on the top of an isolated hill where
the Acropolis stood, and in the valley all along the River Jabbok
which takes its source a few feet farther away. A colony of
Circassians has settled down in the midst of the ruins in the
valley and now forms a big village of about 1,800 inhabitants,
with a Mudir at its head. A few people from es-Salt and from
elsewhere have also come to settle down in the locality. The
station is three-quarters of an hour away down stream on the
right bank of the wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. and just by the river.
Round about Amman one finds several Cherkess colonies.
The most important is that of Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Sir, two and a half hours to
the west. It is a big village of 1,000 inhabitants with pretty
and neat wood houses, very different to the dirty houses of Arab
villages. Water flows plentifully down the valley and plenty of
trees and vegetation remind one of some French country village.
Two short hours to the south of the Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Sir is the colony of
Naur. There are two other colonies to the north of Amman
along the Zerka : the one near Ivalaat ez-Zerka and the other at
Yajuz, half-way between Kalaat ez-Zerka and Amman. The two
last had just been built, when we visited them some ten years
ago. All these Circassians are devoted to the Ottoman Govern
ment and many of them serve in the Gendarmerie. 1 he plateau
round about Amman is mountainous; it is fertile and the
Circassians have worked towards the development and the
culture of the lands upon which they chiefly live.
Es-Salt. —Es-Salt is the seat of the Kaimmakam of the
Bel ka and the true present capital of the country. It is quite
a town with about 20,000 inhabitants. This population includes
about 5,000 Christians of whom a little over 1,000 are Roman
Catholics, nearly 3,000 are Greeks and several hundred are
Protestants. There are a flourishing Latin Mission with Sisteis
of the Rosary, two Greek Churches, and an English Protestant
Mission with a doctor and a hospital. The Turks also have
several schools. One and a half hours to the south-east of
es-Salt one finds the little Christian village of el-Fehes ;
there is another at Er-Rememim three hours to the north-east;
they each possess a Latin Mission. Besides these localities one
only finds in the region the village of er-Rumman, inhabited b_\
a colony of Turcomans, to the north of er-Rememim on the
road from Amman to Jerash.
The region of es-Salt is very mountainous but mteisected
by very fertile, well watered valleys, some of which are partly
cultivated. The Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Shueib, in which es-Salt is situated, is a
real garden on the outskirts of the town. The mountain slopes
o