The Surreal Royal Automobile Museum in Amman

From seeing all the tourist sites to drinking at the Rovers Return there is a lot to do in Amman, but perhaps the most surreal in the Royal Automobile Museum.

Said museum, which was inaugurated in 2003 is touted as the “first automobile museum in the Middle-East”. In fact it is a clepto park that details vehicles own by the late King Hussein of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,

What the Royal Automobile Museum of Jordan

The museum was lunched, as mentioned in 2003 by the new king of Jordan King Abdullah and for all intents is about the cars owned and drives by his father.

And holy shit there are a lot of bloody cars, as well as planes, submarines and move vehicles quite literally worth in the tens of millions.

It is under this context that the place is, well quite surreal, something will get back to.

What can you see here?

As stated vehicles owned and driven by the HRH and to a lesser extent his sons. These include Bugatti’s, Ferraris and almost anything other flash car that you could imagine.

But, there is much more with a whole heap of “donated” vehicles from movies and the like.

These include a bunch from James Bond, such as the underwater BMW, a replica of the vehicles from that dude Mars movie with Matt Damon. The best though are the speeder from Star Wars, which which partly filmed in Wadi Rum, as well as the bike from Tron. These two are legit cool.

Other gems include a submarine, as well as an aquatic car and w bush of other weird crap. There is also a fair few military vehicles, again used by King Hussein, which if nothing else will get us ready for SOFEX. This at least started to get us in the mood for SOFEX and as a first day event the Royal Automobile Museum is pretty much a must.

To read about the nightlife of Damascus click here.

What is it that makes the Royal Automobile Museum so cool?

First and foremost about what makes the Royal Automobile Museum so cool is fairly clear and easy, it is vehicles quite simply because they are so damned cool.

The second point though and one which I will try and be as polite as I can about is the surreal nature of the place. First Jordanians, or at least the guides will tell you just how much the King’s and the royal family are loved, but some (not me of course) might see such opulence when there is poverty in the country as somewhat inappropriate. Although with that being said the Middle-East do seem to be much more forgiving of rich leaders, Arab Spring notwithstanding.

This made me personally see many similarities with the Friendship Exhibition at Mount Myohehang in the DPRK. This is that it is a celebration of gifts, or purchases that are showcased rather than being used. This may not be a bad thing, but it is one open to interoperation. Or perhaps it is just the view of an old leftie that holds no truck within these parts.

Regardless of this though the Royal Automobile Museum is a greta day out and a true highlight when you do visit Jordan.