What is Jordan?
A: Jordan officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in
Western Asia.
Where is It located?
A: At the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region,
on the East Bank of the Jordan River.
Jordan is bordered by what country to the south and
east?
A: Saudi Arabia.
What country borders it to the northeast?
A: Iraq.
What country borders it to the north?
A: Syria.
And to the west?
A: The Palestinian West Bank, Israel, and the Dead Sea.
It has a 26 km (16 mi) coastline on what?
A: The Gulf of Aqaba in the Red Sea to the southwest.
The Gulf of Aqaba separates Jordan from what country?
A: Egypt.
What is Jordan's capital and largest city?
A: Amman.
Modern-day Jordan has been inhabited by humans since
when?
A: The Paleolithic period.
What three stable kingdoms emerged there at the end of
the Bronze Age?
A: Ammon, Moab and Edom.
After the Great Arab Revolt against the Ottomans in
1916 during World War I, the Ottoman Empire was partitioned by whom?
A: Britain and France.
The Emirate of Transjordan was established in 1921 by
whom?
A: The Hashemite, then Emir, Abdullah I, and the emirate became a British
protectorate.
In 1946, Jordan became an independent state officially
known as what?
A: The Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan, but it was renamed in 1949 to the
Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
Jordan renounced its claim to the West Bank in 1988 and
became the second Arab state to do what?
A: To sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1994.
Jordan is a founding member of what organizations?
A: The Arab League and the Organization of
Islamic Co-operation.
The sovereign state is a constitutional monarchy, but
the king holds what?
A: Wide executive and legislative powers.
Jordan is a semi-arid country, with an area of how
much?
A: 89,342 km2 (34,495 sq mi).
What is its population?
A: 10 million, making it the eleventh-most populous Arab country.
The dominant majority, or around 95% of the country's
population, is what?
A: Sunni Muslim, with a mostly Arab Christian minority.
Jordan has been repeatedly referred to as an "oasis of
stability" in what?
It has been mostly unscathed by the violence that
swept the region following what?
A: The Arab Spring in 2010.
From as early as 1948, Jordan has accepted refugees
from where?
A: Multiple neighboring countries in conflict.
An estimated 2.1 million Palestinian and 1.4 million
Syrian refugees are present in Jordan as of when?
A: As of a 2015 census.
The kingdom is also a refuge to thousands of what?
A: Christian Iraqis fleeing persecution by the Islamic State.
While Jordan continues to accept refugees, the recent
large influx from Syria placed substantial strain on what?
A: Its national resources and infrastructure.
Jordan has a high Human Development Index, ranking
102nd, and is considered what?
A: an upper middle-income economy.
The Jordanian economy, one of the smallest economies in
the region, is attractive to foreign investors based upon what?
A: A skilled workforce.
The country is a major tourist destination, also
attracting what?
A: Medical tourism due to its well-developed
health sector.
Nonetheless, a lack of natural resources, large flow of
refugees, and regional turmoil have hampered what?
A: Economic growth.
Jordan takes its name from what?
A: The Jordan River which forms much of the country's northwestern border.
