Amman was once PhiladelphiaSourced
The name Philadelphia belonged to a Middle Eastern city too.
Around 255 BC, Ptolemy II rebuilt the settlement that is now Amman, Jordan, and named it Philadelphia after his own epithet. The city retained that Greek name for centuries before returning to the older name Amman in the early Islamic period.
One name can send a modern map reader to the wrong continent.
Summary / translation: Unbubly · CC BY-SA 4.0
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Philadelphia (Amman) · Wikimedia contributors
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Reviewed: 2026-10-01