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Aqaba/Ayla as an ancient trade port: There is considerable information. Food is a major trade item and in recent years so-called Aqaba-Ayla late Roman amphorae have appeared in a wide range of places: Red seas littoral, Eretrian & Ethiopian sites, those in Western India and now a new one in Oman. Source: M. Raith – R. Hoffbauer – H. Euler – P. Yule – K. Damgaard, The view from Ẓafār – an archaeometric study of the Aqaba late Roman period pottery complex and distribution in the 1st millennium CE, Zeitschrift für Orient-Archäologie 6, 2013, 320–50, ISBN 978-3-11-019704-4. Someone can correct the editor comment, if they want to. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Azd0815 (talk • contribs) 18:11, 15 April 2022 (UTC)

photo caption of photo of flagpole doesn't make sense

it "Resembles" ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.189.255.68 (talk) 22:19, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

Removed category 'Geography of Israel' - Aqaba is not in Israel and whilst I'm not personally offended by this, I suspect others might be. I think people would object if Elat was categorised under 'Geography of Jordan'. Do others agree with my removal of the category reference? Nick Fraser 07:43, 24 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Aqaba (Arabic: Al-'Aqabah) is a southwestern Jordanian only seaport town in bordering Elat, Israel.

I'm sorry, but I can't understand this at all, and I don't know what to correct it to. It's Jordanian-only? It's the only Jordanian seaport?

spelling of "Aila"

"The Ptolemaic Greeks called it Berenice, and the Romans Aila and Aelana."

The ruins of Ayla (unearthed in the 1980s by an American-Jordanian archeological team) are a few minutes walk north along the main waterfront road."

Are these the same place? --babbage 11:45, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC) YES IT IS FOR JORDAN AND ITS ONLY SEAPORT! I CANT EVEN BELIEVE THIS IS BROUGHT UP!!

Under WP policy, Aqaba (in and of itself) should be a Disambiguation Page

Under WP policy, when several places have the same name, the name itself should be a disambiguation page directing readers to diff possibilities. See, e.g., Silver Spring. Since there is Aqaba, West Bank and Aqaba, Jordan the article Aqaba should be a Disambiguation Page directing readers to the two different articles. Please do not change this w/o first discussing it and achieving consensus. SelfEvidentTruths (talk) 17:05, 30 April 2008 (UTC)

Yes, but please do not move content by simply copying and pasting. Instead, for next time, please move the page and preserve the edit history. Thanks. --PFHLai (talk) 05:25, 1 May 2008 (UTC)

SET, not necessarily - see, for example, London, where a city is so well-known that it has to be the main article, and becomes the primary entry on the dab page. However, I don't think that applies in this case, and Aqaba should be a dab page, Aqaba (disambiguation) should be a redirect to Aqaba (to facilitate dab hatnotes) and separate articles for Aqaba, West Bank and Aqaba, Jordan and any other Aqabas that may appear.

--NSH001 (talk) 12:30, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

The city in Jordan, scene of a long documented history, battles, international summits, etc. is by far the better known Aqaba, perhaps not as better known as the English London is compared to the Canadian one, or the French Paris to the Texan town of the same name, but certainly enough better known that someone looking for Aqaba is much more likely looking for the Jordanian one and if by chance they're looking for the other one, there's a nice hat note disambiguation link to it. Carlossuarez46 (talk) 16:35, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

The fact that one is an international port city of 70,000 people whilst the other is a village of 300 also demonstrates that the norm of WP is to do a hat dab or a separate dab page. While the obvious large cities remain safe, we still cannot have every geographical entry of a medium sized place turned into a dab solely because some smaller place shares its name. Carlossuarez46 (talk) 16:41, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

Aqaba is not synonymous with Jordan in the same way as Paris is with France, or Rome with Italy. It's not uncommon in cases where there are two places for their to be a disambig page that favors neither. See Sebastia for example. It seems Wiki practice defers to capital cities (such as in the case of Tripoli, which defaults to Libyan capital, listing the other options in a hat-note) but that does not apply here given that Aqaba is not the capital of either Jordan or the West Bank. Tiamut^talk 20:58, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

Actually, Tiamut, that's not such a good example, as Sebastia is not the modern name of the Turkish city (pop. 296,000). Maybe a better example is Newcastle, a dab page despite the fact that the main city has a population of 190,000(city), 260,000(local authority area) or 799,000(whole conurbation).

--NSH001 (talk) 21:54, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

Hmmm, on closer examination, maybe not. Newcastle is a dab page because there are two Newcastles of comparable size, one in England, one in Australia (plus many others). --NSH001 (talk) 22:14, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

Well I'm not deeply committed either way. The hatnote solution works fine for me. I'm more concerned that the changes snd decision-making is done in a way that fosters consensus. Editors and admins were doing page moves and deletions, seemingly at cross-purposes, and with little central discussion. So what do others think? Hat-note or disambig? What is best practice? Does it really matter? Should we simply move on? Tiamut^talk 22:35, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

This is a matter of fine judgement. For a city to be the prime entry, it has to be very clear that it merits such status - not just a balance of evidence, but that no-one is likely to dispute it. That's why I said above that Aqaba should probably be a dab page. However, this is a borderline case, and I don't think it's worth the hassle of moving it back again. You're right that it should have been discussed first, and consensus reached before moving/deleting. As you say, best to move on.

--NSH001 (talk) 20:58, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

Not even close. Take for example Liverpool, which is properly not a dab but the large English port (430,000 people) rather than the dabbing the city in Australia (150,000 people) 3:1 ratio. Take Birmingham, which properly is not a dab but the large English city (1,000,000 people) using a hat dab for the Alabama city (240,000 people) 4:1 ratio. Cambridge correctly is the English university town (108,000 people) rather than the Massachusetts version of the same (101,000 people). Essentially 1:1 ratio. And first in time doesn't always determine these things: Boston points to the Massachusetts city (590,000 people) not the one after which it was named in Lincolnshire (35,000 people). In any event a quick google search for Aqaba shows in the first few pages, nearly all that I can figure are discussing the Jordanian one. Our sister Wikipedias in foreign languages have articles for the Jordanian Aqaba in Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, German, Estonian, Greek, Spanish, Esperanto, Farsi, French, Indonesian, Italian, Hebrew, Dutch, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Finnish, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Chinese - and the West Bank Aqaba in none. I cannot read the Arabic, Farsi, Japanese, or Chinese, but of all the other languages, except Ukrainian, the article for the Jordanian Aqaba is at "Aqaba" in their language (without further qualification). In Ukrainian it is designated "port", to distinguish the gulf, which is at "Aqaba (gulf)" (uk:Акаба (затока)). So, the rest of the encyclopedia community at WP has no hesitation in knowing what should be at Aqaba: the Jordanian port. If someone wants to set up a dab where a well-known city gets dabbed with less known places 1/200th the size, even with an exception for a nation's capital, then nearly all large or historically important non-capital cities (Liverpool, Birmingham, Venice, Naples, Corinth, Sparta, Odessa, Mecca, Alexandria, and Bethlehem), will be dab pages making the encyclopedia less usable. Carlossuarez46 (talk) 23:24, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

Looks like we're in "violent agreement", then NSH001 (talk) 09:56, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Ayla and Elath

I have restored the quotation from 1 Kings 9:26 to talk about "Eloth" rather than "Ayla", backing out a change that was part of a contribution made by Jerash (talk · contribs) in August 2010 .

Various versions of the text can be browsed at .

The KJV , JPS 1917 , and NASB all have "Eloth"; the NIV has "Elath" , which is also found in some other verses -- see eg the entry in Strong's concordance . The two are probably plural and singular variants of the same name.

The literal Hebrew is aleph-lamed-vav-tav ; in present-day use tav is pronounced with a hard 't', rather that 'th', so that's why the new Israeli city was called "Eilat" rather than "Eilath".

In the Greek of the Septuagint it gets rendered Ailath (Αιλαθ) , and in the Latin of the Vulgate becomes Ahilam , the nominative form Ahila presumably just being a variant of what would at that time have been the contemporary Aila or Ayla as mentioned in the article.

Given the above, while the Vulgate does use a variant of Ayla, it seems more appropriate for our quote to use Eloth, being the form used by most English translations and closer to the original Hebrew. Jheald (talk) 18:02, 4 February 2013 (UTC)

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Aqaba railway?

"the Hejaz railway in 1908, connecting the port to Damascus and Medina.[33]"? In the "Hejaz railway" article there is no connection with Aqaba. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 158.227.73.176 (talk) 17:38, 11 February 2019 (UTC)

Correct, and the source doesn't say it either. Probably the intended meaning is that material from the port could be transported overland to the railway and via the railway to Damascus or Medina. That would have been a much easier journey in total than before the railway was built. But we can't use this without a proper source. Zero^talk 02:22, 12 February 2019 (UTC)

Ancient Near East periods

We need a definition for what we're talking about. As of now, we have a hodgepodge of sites. Elath is not Tell el-Kheleifeh and might or might not be at the site of Roman Aila (the Early Muslim fortified settlement is for instance outside & south of it). Good that nobody added Ezion Geber to the stew.

The "Beach of History" source is far below standard, needs to be replaced along with that entire material - and has special technical demands, without which it doesn't open.

WP-standard, reliable sources are urgently and sorely needed. Arminden (talk) 18:01, 29 January 2021 (UTC)

Religious schools

If the city has “multiple Christian schools,” what is the justification for mentioning just one of them? If that school has some special status there should be text about it. Otherwise, name either all of them or none of them. 伟思礼 (talk) 22:51, 23 February 2023 (UTC)

Aqaba airport distance to Ramon

20 miles apart but only 7 miles by great circle route? That's absurd. 2600:100B:B134:22FA:0:3:E248:BA01 (talk) 02:16, 8 January 2024 (UTC)

Google says 25km by road and 13km in a straight line. Zero^talk 03:36, 9 January 2024 (UTC)

The article states 30km and 13km "great circle distance" but does not specify road and straight-line. First, at that short distance the difference between straight line (on a map) and great circle (straight line on the surface of a sphere) is practically zero. I could edit the article myself but in addition to deleting the great circle reference as misleading and superfluous I would need to know whether the distance is being measured from the centers of the runways, closest points on the property lines, or closest points of the controlled airspace. Suggestions? 2600:100B:B134:22FA:0:3:E248:BA01 (talk) 17:12, 9 January 2024 (UTC)

I rewrote that passage based on the sources. Zero^talk 10:29, 10 January 2024 (UTC)

Thank you. Off subject, but the comment regarding the statement about Nabatean influence in the history/Roman period does indeed deserve discussion. I know it belongs in the Petra article but I know from personal experience that you can walk around Petra and see a striking and obvious difference between the Nabatean (building fronts? monuments? structures?) artifacts and the Roman artifacts. Nabateans had strictly geometric, often stair-step, ornamentation where the Romans used fauna-flora likenesses. It's apparent that the Romans built their own stuff while leaving the Nabatean stuff alone. I have yet to see an adequate analysis of what was obvious to me. 2600:100B:B134:22FA:0:3:E248:BA01 (talk) 17:01, 10 January 2024 (UTC)

out of date

Several paragraphs include statements like "will be completed by 2013". Does anybody have current info on this? 212.35.64.162 (talk) 16:26, 17 November 2024 (UTC)

Pharoah's Island

The article mentions that Baldwin I established a castle on this island, yet upon visiting that page it seems pretty obvious that this isn't true and that it was from the Ayyubids?? 149.200.240.23 (talk) 16:24, 12 May 2025 (UTC)

Which ascent ('aqaba) does 'Aqabat 'Aila refer to? Apparent OR, and contradictory

It looks like OR (original research), and it is contradictory. 'Aqabat 'Aila means the Ascent of Aila; why should the "ascent" part refer to one across the bay, in Sinai, as first alleged, rather than the one right N of 'Aila/'Aqaba, as stated in the 2nd part of the section? Access to cited sources is partial at best, cannot check. Arminden (talk) 10:50, 21 December 2025 (UTC)

Hi Octavius1981. I see that this is all your addition from Sep. this year.

After your intervention, the section became self-contradictory. The name cannot refer to both a mountain or range in the Sinai, AND to the pass of Wadi el-Yutm crossing the mountains north of Aqaba.

Your edit also lacks the proper quote creating a direct connection between the Sinai range and the city east of the bay, this looks like it's your own interpretation, which is rightfully prohibited under the OR rule.

I am removing your text and placing it here for you to reconsider or work on it. Please mind to use academic English (no "may've" and alike pls), and British English, in conformity with the rest of the page. Thanks. Cheers, Arminden (talk) 11:38, 21 December 2025 (UTC)

Here it is:

The present name comes from the identically-named Gulf of Aqaba, named that as early as AD 150 (or somewhat later, if added by a subsequent editor), as evidenced by the plotting of a Mt. Acabe ( 'Ακάβη όρος, 'Akabi Oros') in Ptolemy's Geography^[1], which mountain is shown directly across from the mouth of the Gulf of Aqaba, on the western coast of the Red Sea, probably somewhere in the vicinity of modern Hurghada, Egypt, and ancient Mons Claudianus, both of which placenames could also themselves be derived cognate forms of the word Aqaba, the former by morphological drift, the latter as a translation into Latin, wherein "Claudianus" also suggests limping or stumbling^[2], a perfect semantic overlap for the literal Arabic meaning of "Aqaba" (عقبة), as an "obstacle," "stumbling block," or "spine." Thus the Gulf of Aqaba may have in turn gotten its name from this older region, west of it, around Mt. Acabe (not necessarily a single identifiable mountain), construed as the rough spine of highland that must be crossed, to pass through the natural trade corridor there, from the Upper Nile to the Red Sea, along modern Egyptian Highway 60.

References

Arminden (talk) 11:39, 21 December 2025 (UTC)

Contradictions and uncertainties are par for the course in the etymology business, so that doesn't bother me. It needs a better source, though, as these are inadequate. Zero^talk 01:17, 22 December 2025 (UTC)

@Arminden No it isn't contradictory at all. The name Aqaba, originally Acabe, was associated with the Eastern coast on the African mainland (not with any coast of "Sinai," as you mis-interpreted me), in 150 A.D., as I proved by citing Ptolemy's 150 A.D. map, pdf page 279, and which you see circled in red, in the Medieval map-rendering, here. Do you want a direct quote? Here it is in Ptolemy's original:

Ακάβη ὄρος . . . . . . . . . . . . 64.5 [W longitude], 25.75 [N latitude]

By the time of Idrisi, in the 12 century, the name Aqaba had migrated ACROSS THE RED SEA, to refer to the entire gulf, and eventually city of Aqaba, and presumably (I'm guessing) then up to your little Mountain pass of Wadi El-Yutm. (Name migration is very common: How else did the name of the "Indus" river migrate all the way to "Indochina", and "Indonesia," over 1000 miles away?) Honestly, I don't know why anyone would take seriously that a tiny mountain pass in the 12th century, is a more plausible source of the name Aqaba, than an entire mountain (or mountain-range) in the 2nd century. Let's not wholesale discard 1000 years of its probable named history. Octavius1981 (talk) 6:10, 12 February 2026 (UTC)

Hi Octavius1981.

1. The name migrating east is 100% your own original research, OR in Wiki lingo (zero sources referenced at the end of that interpretation), so completely forbidden on enWiki, the more so as you're making quite wild assumptions, which can be true, but must be based on RS (reliable sources, i. e. academic secondary lit.). You're also being quite presumptuous - elsewhere it's me who's trying to convince people that name migration is a common occurrence; neither did you discover the wheel, nor do I need lessons in elementary toponymy.
2. Even if OR (own interpretations) were to be allowed, Occam's razor goes against your theory: the Ayla -> Aqabat Ayla (pass/ascent of Ayla) -> Aqaba (for the city) -> Gulf of Aqaba sequence is perfectly simple and easy to follow, unlike your much more fancyful proposal. Mind that the primary meaning of aqaba is mountain road, pass, ascent in Arabic, with obstacle the secondary meaning, the root meaning slope, so the fact that more than one mountain or mountain pass is named that way is commonplace and means nothing - unless you can find a source showing that the Egyptian mountain's name is not Semitic (Egyptian? Greek?) and means smth. else and much more specific. Which still wouldn't invalidate the Arabic etymology for Aqaba, which is in NW Arabia. A local name for a local town. Please note that Aqaba's importance lays mainly in it being a hub which connects two major regional land routes, the King's Highway (N-S), and the Egypt-Sinai-Arabia land route, see History of the Hajj#Egyptian route (also almost touching on the Syrian route). The port does indeed also connect both of those with the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, but that's of lesser importance, as it only offered a moderate benefit in comparison to other ports, which is reflected in the modest size of the port cities there at all times in history. For a city so strongly defined by it being at the end of the King's Highway, with which it's connected by a very steep and impressive mt pass, there's nothing surprising in it being named after that pass. And in Muslim times, the Hajj route makes the pass south of Aqaba gain in significance. The settlement, or at least a fort, has been there quite continuously, from before the Hellenistic period and at least until the 1068 earthquake, so a continuous etymological chain is to be expected. The one I mentioned makes much more sense than the African mt -> gulf -> city sequence you suggested. And most decisively, the RS sources (see a dedicated essay here: Whitcomb p. 359, bottom of 2nd column ff) indicate that the name mentioned in the 12th century by Idrisi is ʿaqabat Aylah (عقبة آيلة), commonly translated as 'the mountain-pass of Ayla'. Whitcomb cites authors who connect the name to either the pass to the north through Wadi el-Yutm (so not just "my little pass"; that was unnecessarily aggressive of you, not to mention wrong and proving lack of knowedge), with Musil seeing behind the aqabat the pass to the south toward Mecca, and Whitcomb himself suggests a connection to a hillock inside the settlement, interpreting the name as "slope/obstacle of Ayla". There you go.

To sum up: unless you can bring a RS for the name migration theory, this cannot be included. If you do, it becomes one of two options, both needing to be posted - I'm perfectly OK with that, etymology isn't an exact science by any stretch. Cheers, Arminden (talk) 11:43, 12 February 2026 (UTC)

"Al ٰĀqaba" listed at Redirects for discussion

The redirect Al ٰĀqaba has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2026 May 4 § Arabic diacritics + anything else until a consensus is reached. –LaundryPizza03 (dc̄) 23:52, 4 May 2026 (UTC)