Aqaba is the only coastal city in Jordan and the largest and most populous city on the Gulf of Aqaba. Situated in southernmost Jordan, Aqaba is the administrative centre of the Aqaba Governorate. The city had a population of 148,398 in 2015 and a land area of 375 square kilometres (144.8 sq mi). Today, Aqaba plays a major role in the development of the Jordanian economy, through the vibrant trade and tourism sectors. The Port of Aqaba also serves other countries in the region.

History

Nearby Chalcolithic sites

Excavations at two tells (archaeological mounds) Tall Hujayrat Al-Ghuzlan and Tall Al-Magass, both a few kilometres north of modern-day Aqaba city, revealed inhabited settlements from c. 4000 BC during the Chalcolithic period, with thriving copper production on a large scale. This period is largely unknown due to the absence of written historical sources. University of Jordan archaeologists have discovered the sites, where they found a small building whose walls were inscribed with human and animal drawings, suggesting that the building was used as a religious site. The people who inhabited the site had developed an extensive water system in irrigating their crops which were mostly made up of grapes, olives and wheat. Several different-sized clay pots were also found suggesting that copper production was a major industry in the region, the pots being used in melting the copper and reshaping it. Scientific studies performed on-site revealed that it had undergone two earthquakes, with the latter one leaving the site completely destroyed.

Early history

Elath

The Edomites, who ruled over Edom just south of the Dead Sea, are believed to have built the first port in Aqaba called Elath around 1500 BC, turning it into a major hub for the trade of copper as the Phoenicians helped them develop their maritime economy. They profited from its strategic location at the junction of trading routes between Asia and Africa.

Tell el-Kheleifeh

Archaeologists have investigated an Iron Age settlement at Tell el-Kheleifeh, immediately west of Aqaba, inhabited between the 8th and 4th centuries BCE.

Undefined

Around 735 BC, the city was conquered by the Assyrian empire. Because of the wars the Assyrians were fighting in the east, their trading routes were diverted to the city and the port witnessed relative prosperity. The Babylonians conquered it in 600 BC. During this time, Elath witnessed great economic growth, which is attributed to the business background of its rulers who realized how important the city's location was. The Persian Achaemenid Empire took the city in 539 BC.

Classical antiquity

Hellenistic period

The city continued to grow and prosper which made it a major trading hub by the time of the Greek rule by 300 BC, after the Wars of Alexander the Great, it was described by a Greek historian to be "one of the most important trading cities in the Arab World". The Ptolemaic Greeks called it Berenice.

The Nabatean kingdom had its capital north of the city, at Petra.

Roman period

Both Petra and Aela were under strong Nabatean influence despite the Roman rule. Aela reached its peak during Roman times, the great long-distance road the Via Traiana Nova led south from Bostra through Amman, terminating in Aela, where it connected with a west road leading to the Paralia and Roman Egypt.

Around AD 106 Aela was one of the main ports for the Romans.

Late Roman and Byzantine periods

The Aqaba Church was constructed under Roman rule between 293 and 303 and is considered to be the oldest known purpose-built Christian church in the world. By the time of Eusebius, Aela became the garrison of the Legio X Fretensis, which was moved to Aela from Jerusalem.

One of the oldest known texts written in the Arabic alphabet is a late 4th-century inscription found in Jabal Ram 50 kilometres (31 miles) east of Aqaba.

The city became a Christian bishopric at an early stage. Its bishop Peter was present at the First Council of Nicaea, the first ecumenical council, in 325. Beryllus was at the Council of Chalcedon in 451, and Paul at the synod called by Patriarch Peter of Jerusalem in 536 against Patriarch Anthimus I of Alexandria, a council attended by bishops of the Late Roman provinces of Palaestina Prima, Palaestina Secunda and Palaestina Tertia, to the last-named of which Aela belonged.

A citadel was also built in the area that became the focal point of the Roman southern defense system.

In the 6th century, Procopius of Caesarea mentioned a Jewish population in Eilat and its surroundings which enjoyed autonomy until the time of Justinian I (r. 527–565).

According to Ibn Ishaq, Muhammad himself reached Aila during the expedition of Tabuk of 630, and extracted tribute from the city.

During the Late Byzantine or even Early Muslim period, Aila was the origin of what came to be known as the Ayla-Axum Amphoras.

Early Muslim period

Aila fell to the Islamic armies by 650, and the ancient settlement was left to decay, while a new Arab city was established outside its walls under Uthman ibn Affan, known as Ayla (Arabic: آيلة‎).

The Early Muslim city was excavated in 1986 by a team from the University of Chicago. Artefacts are now on exhibit at Aqaba Archaeological Museum and Jordan Archaeological Museum in Amman. The fortified city was inscribed in a rectangle of 170 × 145 meters, with walls 2.6 meters thick and 4.5 meters high, surrounding a fortified structure, occupying an area of 35 × 55 meters. 24 towers defended the city. The city had four gates on all four sides, defining two main lines intersecting at the centre. The intersection of these two thoroughfares was indicated by a tetrapylon (a four-way arch), which was later transformed into a luxury residential building decorated with frescoes dated to the tenth century. This type of urban structure, called MSIR, is typical of early Islamic fortified settlements.

The city prospered from 661 to 750 under the Ummayads and beyond under the Abbasids (750–970) and the Fatimids (970–1116). Ayla took advantage of its key position as an important step on the road to India and Arab spices (frankincense, myrrh), between the Mediterranean Sea and the Arabian Peninsula. The city is also mentioned in several stories of the Arabian Nights.

The geographer Shams Eddin Muqaddasi describes Ayla as nearby the ruined ancient city.

The city was mentioned in Medieval Arabic sources as having a mixed population of Jews and Christians. It subsequently became an important station for pilgrim caravans on the way to Mecca.

Crusader/Ayyubid and Mamluk periods

Baldwin I of Jerusalem took over the city in 1116 without much resistance. The centre of the city then moved to 500 meters along the coast to the south, and the crusader fortress of Helim was built, as well as Pharaoh's Island (now in Egyptian territorial waters about 7 kilometres (4 miles) west of Aqaba). The city declined in the late 12th century due to earthquakes and attacks by Bedouins.

Ayla remained under the control of the Kingdom of Jerusalem from 1116 until 1187, when it was captured by Saladin. The settlement by this point had essentially disappeared, and the site became known after the nearby mountain-pass, as al-ʿAqaba.

The old fort was rebuilt, as Aqaba Fortress, by Mamluk sultan Al-Ashraf Qansuh Al-Ghuri in the early 16th century. For the next four centuries, the site was a simple fishing village of little importance.

Modern history

During World War I, the Ottoman forces were forced to withdraw from Aqaba in 1917 after the Battle of Aqaba, led by T. E. Lawrence and the Arab forces of Auda Abu Tayi and Sherif Nasir. The capture of Aqaba allowed the British to supply the Arab forces. In 1918, the regions of Aqaba and Ma'an were officially incorporated into the Kingdom of the Hejaz. In 1925, Ibn Saud the ruler of Nejd with the help of his Wahhabi Ikhwan troops successfully annexed the Hejaz, but gave up the Ma'an and Aqaba to the British protectorate of Transjordan.

In 1965, King Hussein, through an exchange deal with Saudi Arabia, gave 6,000 square kilometres (2,317 square miles) of desert-land in Jordanian territories in exchange for other territories, including 12 kilometres (7 miles) of an extension of prime coastline south of Aqaba, which included the magnificent Yamanieh coral reef. Aqaba was a major site for imports of Iraqi goods in the 1980s until the Persian Gulf War.