Irbid
— — a city the students keep awake.
Not only on a wall.
“Jordan's second city, on a high plateau north of Amman within sight of the Golan Heights on a clear day. Yarmouk University fills the centre with student cafés that stay open past midnight. The old downtown holds the bus stations and the gold souks; the new edges hold the apartment blocks. Forty minutes north, the Roman ruins of Umm Qais look out over three countries at once. The bread comes hot from the oven all afternoon. from the studio
Irbid, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Irbid is the second-largest city in Jordan and the capital of Irbid Governorate, sitting on a high plateau in the country's north about 85 kilometres from Amman and roughly 20 kilometres south of the Syrian border. The city's elevation is around 620 metres. Its population is approximately 1.9 million in the wider metropolitan area, with the city proper holding around 600,000. Irbid has been continuously inhabited for at least 5,000 years, identified in classical sources with the city of Arbela; it became one of the Decapolis under the Romans and has held administrative weight in the region ever since.
Yarmouk University, founded in 1976, is the heart of the city. Its 40,000 students fill the cafés along University Street, which Guinness World Records once cited as having the highest density of cafés on a single stretch of road in the world. The student calendar shapes the rhythm of the year: late nights through the term, a quieter campus in summer. Beyond the university, the Hassan Sports City complex and the Museum of Jordanian Heritage anchor the cultural centre, and the souks of the old downtown carry the gold and textile trade of the northern governorates.
Irbid is roughly 90 minutes by bus from Amman's North Bus Station and a similar run from Queen Alia International Airport with a connection. The city itself is walkable around University Street and the old downtown. Most travellers use Irbid as a base for the surrounding Decapolis sites: Umm Qais, 40 kilometres northwest, looks out across the Sea of Galilee and the Golan Heights from a Roman acropolis; Pella sits 30 kilometres west in the Jordan Valley. Spring (March through May) and autumn offer the most workable weather; the plateau cools sharply in winter and can dust with snow.