Al-Salt: Strong contender for world heritage status

As visitors who have spent any length of time in Jordan can attest, while the country punches above its weight in terms of its cultural and historical heritage and the beauty of its natural environment, recent urban development has tended to favour function over form. That is to say, cement blocks and and other utilitarian building materials predominate while streets often are dusty and traffic-clogged. 

View of old city from municipal museum balcony

Thus, it came as a very pleasant surpise on my visit to Jordan last year to arrive in al-Salt, a small city of about 100,000 inhabitants 35km North-West of Amman. Although the locale has been inhabited since ancient times, al-Salt’s heyday came in the 19th century, when traders from Nablus settled in the area and established an architectural legacy of distinctive stone building, many of which survive lto this day. As a result, walking in the centre of al-Salt is like stepping back in time, and the feeling is only strengthened the bustling street life with local people going about their business with not a single souvenir hawker or hustler in sight. 

Market street in the old city

All in all my stay in al-Salt was a highlight of my trip to Jordan, and as such I welcome the municipal authorities’ tenacity in making a third attempt to have their city inscribed as a world heritage site. While the previous attempts, undertaken in 1994 and 2004 respectively, reportedly suffered from their dependence on local experts, the city has now engaged an international consultant with experience working UNESCO to help develop the current bid. With a little over a month to the application deadline, I certainly hope that al-Salt proves to be third time lucky.

19th century home in al-Salt