Salt
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How it came to be
As-Salt in west-central Jordan is a trading town set among three hills in the Balqa highland. In Byzantine times it was a bishopric, and after its destruction by the Mongols it was rebuilt under the Mamluk sultan Baibars. By the end of the 18th century it was the only permanent settlement in the Balqa, a region otherwise held by Bedouin tribes.
The town grew most in the last 60 years of Ottoman rule. The Tanzimat reforms brought security and administration, and merchants from Nablus, Syria and Lebanon settled and made fortunes in trade, banking and farming. Its golden age ran from the 1860s to the 1920s.
The merchants built in local yellow limestone, mixing European Art Nouveau and Neo-Colonial styles with local tradition. About 650 such buildings survive in the historic core, along with the guest houses of the town's tradition of hospitality. It was inscribed in 2021.
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