There is documentation of a settlement in the area as early as 8,500 years ago, and the city served as the capital of the Ammonites in the second half of the second millennium BC. It was mentioned several times in the Bible and was known as “Rabbat Bnei Ammon” after Ben Ami, the son of Lot and his daughter, the father of the Ammon nation . After that it was conquered by the Assyrians, the Persians and by Alexander the Great.