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All Jordan Amman Sports City

Sports City

This sprawling, formerly elite sporting complex in Amman, Jordan has become a local picnic spot.

Amman, Jordan

Added By
Jenya
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Murals to sportsmanship fade on the walls of Amman’s Sports City   jenyag / Atlas Obscura User
Murals to sportsmanship fade on the walls of Amman’s Sports City   jenyag / Atlas Obscura User
Entrance to Sport City as it appeared in 2008   Freedom's Falcon
The former equestrian track inside Sport City is now a favored picnicking spot   Freedom's Falcon
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About

Named after Jordan's third monarch, King Hussein Sports City sits crumbling in the center of Amman. Drained swimming pools, empty gymnasiums, and miles of overgrown track lie nestled between two major thoroughfares in the central neighborhood of Shmeisani. Peeling walls painted with slogans entreating readers to behave in a sporting manner surround the formerly pristine, top-of-the-line complex. 

Instead of harboring the physical activity its name implies, this decrepit monument to fitness now provides a venue for friends and family to gather outdoors in dusty patches of shade. Officially or otherwise, Sport City has come to provide much needed respite from the incessant sight and sound of Amman's traffic, thanks to its anomalous swath of publicly-accessible land in Amman, where parks and public spaces are a rarity. 

The most popular pastimes include enjoying picnics or smoking hookah – a far cry from the vigorous pursuits the nation's top athletes once undertook here. In fact, visitors to today's Sport City expressly seek out its arenas with the intention to avoid working up a sweat. They simply want a place to chill away from life's daily races.

After strolling through the complex, one is left awestruck at the amount of capital the government once poured into the infrastructure project. Yet it serves a more important role to the citizens of Amman in its semi-abandoned state than it ever did as a sporting complex. 

Related Tags

Abandoned Sports Parks

Know Before You Go

Most of Amman's cab drivers will easily be able to easily navigate to the entrance of the complex after being prompted with the phrase "Sports City"

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Ancient Ruins & Legendary Landmarks of Jordan

Explore Mesmerizing Jordan: From Petra to Greco-Roman Ruins.

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Community Contributors

Added By

jenyag

Edited By

littlebrumble, hausermiriam, aribrown

  • littlebrumble
  • hausermiriam
  • aribrown

Published

April 21, 2016

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  • This is my gym!
Sports City
Al Shaheed
"Sports City"
Amman
Jordan
31.985157, 35.902609
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Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Amman

Amman

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Places 7
Stories 4

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