The land covered by the Amman Governorate has been inhabited since the prehistoric age, ruins of civilizations as early as 7250 BC have been discovered at
'Ain Ghazal near
Amman, the site itself is one of the largest prehistoric settlements in the Middle East. Amman was the capital and stronghold of the
Ammonites, which they called Rabbath Ammon, the Ammonites ruled almost the entire land of the Capital Governorate. After the
Romans took control of the region, Amman was renamed as "Philadelphia", and was one of the ten Roman
Decapolis cities. Following the Arab Muslim conquests, Philadelphia reclaimed the name Amman. The
Byzantine site at
Umm ar-Rasas was designated as a World Heritage Site in 2004. ==Geography==