City in northern Jordan with aprox 300,000 inhabitants (2005 estimate), located 53 miles (85 km) north of the capital city, Amman ,in the highlands at an elevation of 620 metres. It is the capital of Irbid Governorate with an area of 1,572 km² and 1 million inhabitants (2005 estimate).

.Irbid is well connected with other urban centres of Jordan .Irbid has two universities, the Yarmuk University and the Jordan University of Science and Technology.

History

Settlements at Irbid are believed to date to the Early Bronze Age, involving a continuous history of 6000-7000 years. It is quite possible that Irbid is the Beth Arbel of the Bible.
1st century BCE: Known as Arbila and part of the Hellenistic league of the Decapolis.
1950's: Rapid growth in the population, due to large crowds of Palestinian refugees settling here.

When reconsolidating their rule over Jordan in the nineteenth century, the Ottoman Empire's representatives in Damascus made Irbid the seat of the subgovernorate of Ajlun, the first district in Jordan to be ruled directly by the Ottomans. As such, Irbid became the home of some of Jordan's first public institutions. Irbid continued to serve as the capital of Ajlun during the emirate of Transjordan and of today's governorate of Irbid.

Known during the Roman Empire as Arbila, Irbid was counted among the ten towns of the Decapolis - a commercial federation of towns in Judea, Jordan, and Syria during the first century B.C.E.

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