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  Salt - Culture

As-Salt town, also spelled Salt, or Es-Salt, lays in west-central Jordan. It is on the old main highway (often called the As-Salt Road) leading from Amman to Jerusalem. The town is situated in the Al-Balqa' highland, about 2,600–2,750 feet (about 790–840 m) above sea level, and is built on two hills, one of which has the ruins of a 13^th-century fortress.

The word for 'salt' apparently originates from the name of the town Es-Salt. The first war that mankind initiated was most probably over 'salt'. It's the ideal place for admiring the architecture, stopping off at the small museum and finishing up at Salt Zaman, a lovely restored old building in the heart of the town, charmingly furnished with antiques and handicrafts.

Salt also houses a Handicrafts School where you can admire traditional skills of ceramics, weaving, silkscreen printing, and dyeing.

The town is an agricultural market and an administrative centre. The chief crops produced in the vicinity are grapes (for raisins), olives, and grains; tanning extract is produced from sumac bushes. In 1966 a pharmaceutical factory was opened at As-Salt. Pop. including adjacent localities (1994 est.), 187,014.

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