JORDAN

Arabic Al-Urdun, officially Hashimite Kingdom of Jordan, Arabic al-Mamlakah al-Urdunniyah al-Hashimiyah Arab country of Southwest Asia. It is a young state that occupies an ancient land associated with the Middle Eastern civilizations of antiquity. It is bounded to the north by Syria, to the east by Iraq, to the southeast and south by Saudi Arabia, and to the west by Israel and the West Bank. (In 1988 Jordan renounced its claims to the West Bank, which had been under its rule from 1948 to 1967.) Jordan has 16 miles (26 km) of coastline on the Gulf of Aqaba in the southwest, where Al-'Aqabah, its only port, is located. The total area is 34,342 square miles (88,946 square km), which excludes 147 square miles (380 square km) of territory per the Israel-Jordan treaty of October 1994. Jordan's capital and largest city is Amman.