King Abdullah I Mosque

It hadn’t been something we were planning to do but after our initial walkabout in Amman, we decided we would like to see what it was like to visit a Mosque.

According to available info, there was only one Mosque in Amman that allowed non-Muslims to visit and it was the King Abdullah I Mosque so that is where we headed near the end of our trip.

It is a beautiful building complex but what ultimately was most surprising to me was the surroundings. We went to see a Mosque but right next to it there was both the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate and an armored truck. This was, in effect a reflection of the country and probably the region as well: religion under military eyes. Or is it the other way around? I guess you can be the judge.

We had to wait a little bit to get in as you are not allowed during prayers but as those finished we entered the complex and bought tickets inside. Unsurprisingly, the first thing that happened was that A had to cover herself up. Luckily she got a selection of hooded shawls to use at the entrance so you won’t have to worry about that. 

After that, you walk inside the complex and you are just outside a series of doors which take you to the part of the mosque where people pray but with all the doors closed we simply didn’t know which entrance to take or if she could enter. Earlier in the trip we were told that women and men can only pray together at Mecca so it was a really awkward moment for us where we seemed to just freeze. We didn’t want to go in if she could not enter and we couldn’t find anybody to ask about it for like 5 minutes and we felt plain silly.

Fortunately a nice gentlemen told us we could go in and thus we finally did. It turns out that female tourists can enter and visit but not pray together.

If you have never been in such a place of worship, it is a pretty interesting thing. As it was Ramadan in the summer, people would retreat to the mosque to hide from the heat and to be spiritual and as a result, there were several people literally just taking naps on the floor.

It may not have been the most exciting thing we did the entire trip but as experiences go, it was something cool to witness.