*1.1. History of the City of Waters*

Amman is known among historians for its many sources of water from streams, springs, artesian wells and reservoirs along its valleys. It is also described by the Torah as "*The royal city*" i.e. the capital, or that "*The city of waters*" [7]. The name Amman came from the time when it was the capital for the Ammonite kingdom (1200 BC). Later, the Greco-Romans made Amman one of the Decapolis league and named it Philadelphia. Lower Amman was located on the banks of the stream where people built their houses from stones and mud, and where they practiced their daily lives, relying on trade, agriculture and grazing. Upper Amman was atop the citadel mountain, which rose about 130 meters from the stream of Amman. Ponds and wells collected water and stored it for use during the siege and in the summer season.

Overall, the basic promoter for urban agglomerations was the stream running in its corridor. A collection of natural springs from Ras Al-Ein (formerly known as Wadi Abdoun); and the rainwater runoff from the western mountains maintained the stream flow. The fresh waters supported agricultural lands and provided the basic everyday needs of the settlers. Amman was famous in the Umayyad era (636–750 AD) for the cultivation of grain and animal husbandry [9–11]. The manifestations of prosperity and advancement of the city at the Umayyad era are clear when we know that the money mintage was on its land. It also sustained itself will into 1347 AD. The importance of Amman as a trading center and an exchange market has been further enhanced by the presence of several flourmills (run mills), turned by the flowing stream waters.

The historical continuity and population sequence in Amman witnessed a long recession caused by earthquakes and epidemics, which lasted several centuries (1347 AD to 1878 AD). In the late nineteenth century, Circassians fleeing Russian genocide came and settled in Amman, where it began to grow and flourish again. Therefore, the history of modern Amman dates back just to the late nineteenth century.

Circassians started coming to Amman as early as 1878, and landed in the Ras Al-Ein stream corridor, around the ancient Omari Mosque (Umayyad Mosque, later known as the Husseini Mosque). By 1895, Amman became full of life, traffic and urbanization (along with agricultural activities and handicrafts) [12,13].

The population of the city of Amman in the 1920s was estimated between 3000 and 5000, indicating the small size of the city (See Figure 1 for the chronological photo order). In 1921 occurred the establishment of Amman as the capital of Transjordan [9–11]. In 1930, its population increased to 10,000, due to the attraction of many people seeking work in the capital, in addition to the internal and external migrations [11]. The population growth in Amman has been neither gradual nor natural; the city has witnessed population mutations in 1948, 1967, 1976 and 1990 as a result of the political conditions in neighboring countries. Amman transformed from a small village with a population less than 100,000 into a city with three million inhabitants by the end of 1987 (and over four million now) [14].

**Figure 1.** Timeline photographs of Amman downtown 1900–1985 AD [15].

The huge demographic mutations and migration caused an increased demand for infrastructure, transportation and urban expansion. Decision makers considered that pressures posed negative impacts that needed quick mitigation measures. Focusing on the problem caused misfortunate decisions that jeopardized the natural resources of the city in order to absorb the increasing population densities.
