MaAn Zip code

About Ma'an

Ma'an is one of Jordan's governorates; it is situated south of Amman, the country's capital. Its capital is Ma'an. By area, this governorate is the biggest in Jordan.
Numerous historic sites are located across the Governorate of Ma'an. Ma'an Governorate was ruled by the Edomite Empire, which had its capital at adjacent Tafilah Governorate's Busaira. The Edomites were later succeeded by the Nabateans, who constructed one of the most important archaeological and historical sites in the Middle East, the ancient city of Petra. Petra succumbed to the Roman Empire in 103 A.D. after repelling Macedonian and Roman assaults. Mount Hor is located near Petra and is believed to be the burial site of Aaron, Moses' brother: the mountain is referred to in Arabic as Jebel Nebi Harun (Mountain of Prophet Aaron). Aaron's tomb is located at the summit of the mountain.
The Ma'an Governorate has evidence of human habitation dating all the way back to at least 7000 BC, when the Neolithic hamlet of Basta was formed. Basta was one of the world's earliest civilizations to cultivate land and domesticate cattle.
The regions of Ma'an were captured by the Islamic Khaliphate in the seventh century A.D. The Crusaders acquired control of the Shoubak highlands in the 11th century. At a height of more than 1300 metres above sea level, the Crusaders erected the castle of Montreal in the city of Shoubak.
Ma'an was the capital of the Arab state established by Emir Abdullah in 1920 for a brief while until the seat was relocated to Amman. In modern-day Jordan, the first newspaper, Alhaqqu Ya'lu, was published in Ma'an.
Between Autumn 1996 and Spring 1997, the Al-Jafr-desert, located near Al-Jafr in the governorate's eastern region, was the site of extensive tests of the ThrustSSC, the British-built vehicle that is currently the world's fastest land vehicle and was the first land vehicle to break the sound barrier in October 1997 in Nevada's Black Rock Desert. As a result, the ThrustSSC was the fastest land vehicle driven in an Arab nation.