Al-Salt

About

Al-Salt is believed to have been built by the Macedonian army around 300 BC. A regional capital since the Byzantine era, in the late 19th century, traders arrived from Nablus made Al-Salt their base for operations east of the Jordan River, and the town expanded from a simple village to an Ottoman jewel. Today, the maze of narrow alleys are lined with some of the finest examples of Ottoman architecture in the region, with the honey-colored sandstone buildings bearing long, arching windows and elegant carvings. Here you’ll find the oldest public secondary school in Jordan, and at the Abu Jaber mansion, splendid frescoed ceilings painted by Italian artists. The town is dotted with both mosques and churches, attesting to its long history of Muslims and Christian occupation, which is embodied by Al-Khader, or the St. George Orthodox Church, which incorporates a small cave and houses paintings of the disciples and of St. George slaying a dragon.