Jordan's Umm al-Jimal added to UNESCO heritage list

Amman: Jordan s Umm al Jimal village has been added to UNESCO s World Heritage List, in a move hailed on Sunday by the country s tourism and antiquiti...

Amman: Jordan's Umm al-Jimal village has been added to UNESCO's World Heritage List, in a move hailed on Sunday by the country's tourism and antiquities minister as a "great achievement".

UNESCO, which is hosting a meeting of its World Heritage Committee in New Delhi, said on X on Friday that the earliest structures uncovered at Umm al-Jimal date back to the first century AD, "when the area formed part of the Nabataean Kingdom."

It added that inscriptions in "Greek, Nabataean, Safaitic, Latin and Arabic uncovered on the site... sheds light on the changes in its inhabitants' religious beliefs".

The village is near the Jordanian-Syrian border, 86 kilometres (53 miles) north of the capital Amman, and is known as "the black oasis" due to the prevalence of black volcanic rock in the area.

Jordan's Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Makram al-Qaisi said in a press conference Sunday that the inclusion of Umm al-Jimal on the World Heritage List is a "great achievement we should be proud of".