The earliest evidence of settlement in Amman dates to the 8th millennium BC in 'Ain Ghazal , home to the world's oldest statues of the human form.
In the 3rd century BC, the city was renamed Philadelphia and became one of the ten Greco-Roman cities of the Decapolis. Throughout most of the Islamic era, the city alternated between periods of devastation and periods of relative prosperity.
Amman was largely abandoned during the Ottoman period from the 15th century until , when it was resettled by Circassians. Amman witnessed rapid growth after its designation as Transjordan 's capital in , receiving migrations from different Jordanian and Levantine cities, and later several successive waves of refugees: Palestinians in and ; Iraqis in and ; and Syrians since It was initially built on seven hills , but now spans over 19 hills combining 22 areas, [ 10 ] which are administered by the Greater Amman Municipality.
Approximately one million visitors arrived in Amman in , which made it the 89th most-visited city in the world and the 12th most-visited Arab city. Amman derives its name from the ancient people of the Ammonites , whose capital the city had been since the 13th century BC. At its height, around BC years ago , it had an area of 15 hectares 37 acres and was inhabited by ca. At that time, the site was a typical aceramic Neolithic village. Its houses were rectangular mud-bricked buildings that included a main square living room, whose walls were made up of lime plaster.
By , when the excavations started, around meters 2, feet of road ran through the site. Thirty-two figures were found in two caches, fifteen of them full figures, fifteen busts, and two fragmentary heads. Three of the busts depicted two-headed characters, the significance of which is not clear. Rabat Amman provided several natural resources to the region, including sandstone and limestone, along with a productive agricultural sector that made it a vital location along the King's Highway , the ancient trade route connecting Egypt with Mesopotamia , Syria and Anatolia.
