Known as the "fingernail factory", the headquarters of Jordan's General Intelligence Department were infamous for the GID's enhanced interrogation techniques. In the Seventies and Eighties officers of this secret police, who reported directly to the King, would wield pliers on suspects' fingernails to yield forced "confessions". Back then, the building sat menacingly in what were the outskirts of Amman.

In the intervening years, Jordan's capital has grown as waves of refugees from Palestine, Iraq, Syria and other countries have settled in the largely peaceful and safe city within a turbulent region. It has increased from 5,000 people in the Twenties to four million now. The GID headquarters were subsumed by this expansion and later sold off for development. In its place sits a brand new district of the city, built from the ground up.

The unsavoury origin of this new area, named Abdali, is far from the image it is trying to impress. The $5billion (£3.5billion) project is focused on creating a new downtown, packed with international businesses and high-end hotels and apartments for expats and wealthy Jordanians, resembling a mini Dubai. It is also a ploy to remind tourists that Jordan is not simply composed of the archaeological majesty of Petra, the Martian landscape of Wadi Rum and the luxurious resorts of the Dead Sea, but to promote Amman as a destination in itself.