"الأسواق الاردن" by Benjamin Schmida
If there's one thing in Amman that deserves more attention than it gets it has to be its markets. Before coming to Jordan I had only a faint idea of what a market in Amman would be like. Very few of the travel guides I read mentioned these markets and yet after spending a few weeks here they became some of my favorite places to photograph and continue to be after living in Jordan for months. Amman has a variety of markets or “الأسواق” ranging from those such as Friday Market (سوق الجُمعة) specializing in used clothing, Sugar Market in Downtown Amman (سوق السكر في وسط البلد) specializing in produce, and Thieves Market (سوق الحرامية) specializing in used appliances and other miscellaneous goods. Most of the markets such as Sugar and Thieves Market can be found between Quraysh and King Talal street in Downtown Amman. You can find almost anything you could ever want during a short walk from one end of Downtown to the other. From souvenirs, vegetables, clothing, appliances, spices, sweets, nuts, toys, live animals, perfumes, and cleaning products the list of what you can find at the markets in Downtown is substantially longer than what you can’t buy. One of the things I love most about these markets is how lively they are. Few places in the world that I have been to can compare to the busy-ness and beautiful chaos of Amman markets, especially on peak days such as Thursdays.
Benjamin Schmida is a junior at American University studying on the Area and Arabic Studies program in Amman, Jordan for an academic year.
