Official Name: | Ain Al-Basha |
Settlement Type: | Populated place |
Pushpin Map: | Jordan |
Pushpin Map Caption: | Location in Jordan |
Subdivision Type: | Country |
Subdivision Name: | Jordan |
Subdivision Type1: | Governorate |
Subdivision Type2: | District |
Subdivision Name1: | Balqa |
Subdivision Name2: | Ain Al Basha |
Ain Al-Basha is a Jordanian town in Balqa Governorate, located about 20 kilometers northwest of the capital, Amman. Highway 35, which connects Amman with Jerash, runs through Ain Al-Basha.
The Baqa'a refugee camp, which was set up in 1968 and is the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Jordan, is located near Ain Al-Basha. It was one of six camps set up to shelter refugees fleeing from the Palestinian territories during the 1967 Arab–Israeli war.
Pasha, pronounced "Basha" in Arabic, is a Turkish title that was granted to senior military personnel and those with high civil positions, meaning the head or the president. Ain al-Basha was called by this name because Ibrahim Pasha went to a well, or "ain", while passing through the area.[1]
The population of Ain Al-Basha was estimated at 69,716 in 2021. Its neighborhoods include Prince Ali, Qutaiba, Al-Balad, Al-Zahra, Umm Safatin, Western Shuwaihi, and Imam Al-Shafi’i.[2]
There are a number of government schools for both sexes from elementary to high school and in various academic branches and 12 kindergartens for children and 9 nursery centers and more than 15 private schools, the most famous of which are Al Majd, Sama Amman, creativity and achievement schools.
There is near the Ain Al-Basha Philadelphia University (Jordan) on the road to Jerash and the Applied Science Private University in Shafa Badran, east of Ain Al-Basha; in addition to Al-Ahliyya Amman University to the southwest of Ain Al-Basha.