Jordan Crown Prince Drives PM Modi to Jordan Museum in Rare Diplomatic Gesture
Jordan royal's rare gesture warms India ties.
In a significant and rare demonstration of personal diplomacy and mutual esteem, Jordanian Crown Prince Al Hussein bin Abdullah II took the wheel himself to drive Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Jordan Museum in Amman on Tuesday, a gesture that vividly illustrates the deep-rooted warmth and strengthening strategic partnership between India and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan amid evolving regional dynamics.
The Crown Prince, who holds the distinction of being a 42nd-generation direct descendant of Prophet Mohammad and represents the younger generation of Jordanian leadership, extended this highly unusual protocol deviation during Prime Minister Modi's meticulously planned two-day state visit, which arrived in Jordan on Monday pursuant to a formal invitation from His Majesty King Abdullah II and constitutes the inaugural phase of an extensive four-day diplomatic itinerary that will subsequently encompass high-level engagements in Ethiopia and Oman.
The Jordan Museum, strategically located in the culturally significant Ras al-Ein district overlooking the heart of Amman, serves as the nation's flagship archaeological repository, inaugurated in 2014 with state-of-the-art facilities designed to safeguard and present an unparalleled collection of artifacts that systematically document the historical and cultural trajectory of the Levant region across millennia.
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Among the museum's most acclaimed exhibits are remarkably preserved animal bones scientifically dated to approximately 1.5 million years ago, offering profound insights into prehistoric fauna, complemented by the extraordinary Ain Ghazal lime plaster statues—monumental human figures crafted around 9,000 years ago during the Neolithic period—which are internationally recognized as some of the earliest and most sophisticated examples of large-scale anthropomorphic sculpture in human history.
This shared visit to the museum by the two leaders not only provided an enriching exploration of Jordan's extraordinary civilizational heritage spanning from the dawn of prehistory through successive eras to the present day but also reinforced the foundations of bilateral cooperation, highlighting shared values of cultural preservation and mutual respect that continue to underpin the robust and multifaceted relationship between the two nations.
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