The Citadel that crowns Amman's highest hill holds layers that archaeology reveals - the Bronze Age settlements, the Roman Temple of Hercules, the Umayyad Palace that Islamic civilization added. The artifacts that the Jordan Museum now holds, the ruins that visitors walk among - the Citadel is where Amman's history concentrates and where views of the modern city extend.

The Citadel provides the encounter with antiquity that Jordan offers throughout, the evidence that civilization has occupied this region continuously. The Roman period that Philadelphia represents, the Islamic period that followed, the Ottoman and British that preceded independence - the Citadel holds them all in proximity that museums cannot match.

Downtown Amman is where the old city survives, the Roman amphitheater that still hosts performances, the souks where merchants sell what tourists want and locals need, the streets where Arabic script dominates and English retreats. The downtown that refugees from 1948 filled, the businesses they built, the Palestinian identity that became Jordanian - downtown is where Amman's working character persists.

The downtown is not the Amman of wealth, which has moved to western hills. The restaurants and cafes that serve traditional food, the shops that sell gold and spices, the human density that air-conditioned malls eliminate - downtown is Amman before oil money from the Gulf transformed the neighborhoods that could attract it.

Amman has absorbed refugees that other capitals couldn't handle - the Palestinians of 1948 and 1967, the Iraqis after 2003, the Syrians after 2011. The population that each crisis expanded, the neighborhoods that refugees built and transformed, the Jordan that grew to accommodate them - Amman is a refugee city in ways that reshape its identity.

The refugees brought skills and capital and labor that Jordan's economy absorbed, the merchants and doctors and workers who rebuilt lives that war interrupted. The Palestinian identity that permeates Amman, the Iraqi restaurants that now serve locals, the Syrian businesses that recent arrival established - the refugees are not apart from Amman but part of what it became.

West Amman is where modernity concentrates - the neighborhoods of Abdoun and Sweifieh where malls and restaurants serve Gulf tourists and wealthy Jordanians, the embassies and international organizations that stability attracts. The Amman that could be anywhere, the brands and buildings that globalization standardizes - west Amman is what development looks like when it has oil money to spend.

The west represents the inequality that Jordan displays - the wealth that coexists with the camps where refugees still live, the consumption that income from elsewhere enables. West Amman is not false, but it is not all that Amman is; the visitors who never leave it see Jordan incompletely.

Amman's greatest asset is stability, the Hashemite monarchy that has navigated regional chaos keeping Jordan functional when neighbors collapsed. The refugees who came because Jordan was stable, the businesses that located because Jordan was predictable, the tourists who visit because Jordan is safe - stability is what Jordan sells and what Amman displays.

The stability requires the authoritarianism that the monarchy maintains, the limits on expression that keep peace, the security services that prevent what neighboring states experienced. The trade-off between freedom and stability that Jordan represents finds expression in Amman - the city that works because the state ensures it does.