Uriah's Last Stand (The Citadel, Downtown Amman)

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N/S ? ??.??? W/E ??? ??.???  [] In Jordan

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The Citadel is in the heart of Amman, Jordan. Lots of ruins and walking around rubble.

*** This has been temporarily replaced by a fellow GC'er. If another GC'er has a more permanent container please help out. Thanks to the GC'er that put in a temporary! ***

The Citadel (Jabal Al-Qal’a), in the heart of Amman, Jordan is the home of ruins ranging from the Roman to the early Islamic. The name of the city originates from the city known in the Old Testament as Rabbath Ammon, home of the Ammonites.

King David captured the city in the early 10th century BC. During this battle, David shacked up with and impregnated Bathsheba, the warrior Uriah’s wife. Subsequently, David brought Uriah back to the City of David in order to have him lie (in the biblical sense) with his wife, to explain away the pregnancy. Uriah, thinking of his fellow warriors who were sleeping in open fields, refused to live in better conditions than them and therefore would not enter his house to sleep with his wife. David then sent him back to Rabbath Ammon, to the hill of the Citadel, carrying a note to his commander, Joab, which said, “Place Uriah in the front line of the fiercest battle and withdraw from him, so that he may be struck down and die.” (2 Samuel 11:15)

In later times, Amman was subsequently ruled by Assyira (8th century BC), Babylonia (6th century), the Ptolemies, the Seleucids (3rd century BC), the Romans (1st century) and later by the Umayyads (7th century).

After entering the complex you will find the temple of Hercules on your left. Built between 162-166 AD the temple was larger than any temple in Rome. Continue to the right of the path and you will see the Umayyad mosque. While much of the facade and the interior (including the dome) have been restored, you can see the original parts of the mosque. Walking through the mosque to the other side, you will come to the Umayyad palace complex. Have fun finding the cache :) There is a 2 JOD entrance fee (approx. 3 USD) and is open from 8am to 6pm (Thanks to Strandflieder for the info on the hours of operation).

Additional Hints ( Decrypt ) 

Decryption Key
A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z
(letter above equals below,
and vice versa)

Svaq n fvta bs gur bprna, gur bar uvture hc, tb gb vg'f onpxfvqr, fgrc hc, naq ybbx hc naq gb gur evtug. (Decrypted Hints)

Find...

• ...other caches hidden or found by this user
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Citadel Ruins & Umayyad Mosque

Planting the Cache

My wife and I enjoy geocaching together. This is a picture of us together after I hid the cache.
Runis and the Temple of Hercules

Temple of Hercules

Temple of Hercules

The 2nd Largest Free-Standing Flag Polie in the Wo

The largest free-standing flagpole in the world is also in Jordan in the coastal city of Aqaba.
View of the Amman Cityscape

A view of the cityscape from the Citadel.

Logged Visits ( 47 total. Visit the Gallery (23 images) )

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Cache Logs

November 15 by 2honus (225 found) Left USBC pin, TN. TFTC. [view this log]

November 5 by alligateuse (10549 found) We were the first group to visit the location. This made it easier to go for the cache. No curious tourist police guy was disturbing me, so I could find the temporary container, which was an empty cigarette package easily. A very interesting location with a great view on Amman. Also, the musuem is worth to visit. I enjoyed it very much. Thanks for showing me this great place! Greetz from Germany, Annett [view this log]

October 31 by frogdude (499 found) Found on my free day in Amman prior to taking a tour of Jordan. Great view from up here. The cache container is still the temporary one that a cacher put there, and needs to be replaced more permanently [view this log]

October 31 by ravnholt87 (126 found) Found on holiday with kaas70 Greatings from Denmark [view this log]

October 31 by kaas70 (175 found) Found on vacation i Jordan. Two "Tourist Police men" where very interrested in us, but I hope they did´nt saw us replacing the cache ;-) TFTC from Denmark [view this log]

Current time: 11/22/2009 5:47:11 AM
Last Updated: 11/16/2009 9:27:27 AM
Rendered: From Database
Coordinates are in the WGS84 datum