Zarqa, Jordan · UTC+3 ☆

Zarqa is in the Arabia Standard Time zone (AST/UTC+3), year-round. Jordan permanently abolished daylight saving time in October 2022.

Zarqa is Jordan’s second-largest city, sitting about 24 km northeast of Amman in a flat industrial zone.[2] The city grew rapidly in the 20th century around the oil refinery established there in 1956 and a large military base, attracting Palestinian refugees and economic migrants who built a dense, workmanlike city.[3]

Jordan keeps Arabia Standard Time, UTC+3, year-round. Jordan observed daylight saving time for many years, with an irregular history of date adjustments and occasional skipped changes. In October 2022, DST was permanently abolished.[1] The clock has been fixed at UTC+3 since, synchronizing Jordan with neighboring Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

industrial city on a fixed clock

At 32 degrees north, Zarqa gets meaningful but not extreme daylight variation. The summers are hot and dry; the winters mild by Northern European standards. The industrial character of the city means its pace is set by factory shifts and refinery schedules as much as by natural light.

Zarqa is often mentioned in regional security contexts: it was the hometown of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the first leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq.[4] The city’s dense, economically marginal neighborhoods became well-known to security researchers after 2003 for reasons that have nothing to do with timekeeping.

9am in Zarqa is 6am in London. Amman nearby shares the same Jordanian timezone.

Read more about time in Jordan →