Salt Old Town: Hammam Street and the Stairways

From the car park below Hammam Street, walk up to the east end of Hammam Street, the pedestrian street at the heart of the old town of Salt (السلط), and follow it west between the Ottoman-era stone buildings. At the west end are the tourist information office and the Abu Jaber Museum, in the mansion built between 1892 and 1906, the Great Mosque (المسجد الكبير), and close by the Old English Hospital Museum and the Church of the Good Shepherd. From the mosque climb the stairs on the north side of the street to the lanes above, cross to a second flight and come down to Hammam Street again, then walk back to the car park.

It is 1.7 km round with 72 m of ascent; allow about half an hour of walking, and an hour and a half to two hours if you go into the museums and churches. The grade is Easy: pavements, cobbled lanes and two flights of steps, steep in places and worn smooth.

Outside Hammam Street the lanes are shared with cars, and the stairs can be slippery. The mosque and the churches are places of worship: cover shoulders and knees and ask before going in.

The streets and stairs are free. Visit Jordan's fee list gives 2 JD for foreign visitors at the As-Salt Archaeological Museum and 1 JD at the As-Salt Cultural Center and Folklore Museum. The Salt Development Corporation, a local non-profit, runs two walks through the old town that last about two hours, the Daily Life Trail and the Harmony Trail; this is our own line through the same streets, not either of them. Salt lies about 22 km north-west of Amman as the crow flies.

Route drawn by Global Adventurer along OpenStreetMap paths (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL), with figures worked out from it. Check the forecast and the ground on the day: paths change.