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The Jordanian Napoleon disappeared, and since then downtown has changed, but some landmarks remained, just like the memory of the Jordanian Napoleon who was one of its landmarks.
Many modern cafes have replaced the old ones that had a distinct identity, while these modern ones mix fabricated modernity with the old and a bit of heritage, but they did not form an identity that reflects the spirit of the downtown we know.
Important markets that used to display the latest fashion trends in Europe have disappeared, but the Gold Market (Souq Al-Saghah) has remained as it is.
Greater Amman Municipality sought to beautify downtown, so it added sidewalks and a walkway, closed some alleys and opened others, and Hashem Restaurant remained one of the landmarks that point to the downtown we know. The crowds and cars increased, and their horns did not stop, although important cities ban the use of car horns in old areas.
I decided to take an old route that I used to take at a very early age. Amman as I knew it in my youth was downtown, Jabal Al-Qala'a, Jabal Al-Hussein, and the First Circle, and I am not talking to you about upscale, luxurious Al-Weibdeh.
As I walked, my nose was filled with the scent of lemons in summer, competing with the scents of cypress and fig trees.
It has changed a lot, very much indeed. These scents were replaced by others that are not better: car exhaust and the leftovers of breakfast meals in rusted aluminum containers. There is no place for lemon trees, and the cypress trees have collapsed on their trunks, thirsty. They no longer release the same fragrant scents when light breezes gently blow from the west, and gradually they could barely carry some dust with them.
I decided to take the road to Jabal Al-Qala'a, and found it fenced off with passage prohibited, whereas I used to roam it corner by corner and angle by angle, memorized its ruins piece by piece, and named its trees tree by tree... Its trees are no longer the same; their greenery has gone out: this one is dry, that one is collapsing and falling or nearly is, and that one has been uprooted to be replaced by a concrete pillar.
Downtown has changed, but for the better or for the worse? I might consider this a poll, and I ask readers for their opinions.
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