Zarqa River
The double hills (hence the plural 'Tulūl', proper: dual 'Tellan' rather than the singular' Tell 'and' Tall ') are situated - about only 35 km northwest of the Jordanian capital, Amman - in the Zarqa River valley, the biblical Jabbok, at the opening of the southern Wadi Hajjaj. The two twin-like natural hills, both of them bearing ruins, are both app. 120 m above the riverbed and forcing the Zarqa River on a winding course around them. Until the 20th century the twin hills obstructed the way to the Zarqa valley heading east. Ancient hikers had to dodge the way into the Zarqa valley and head to the Wadi Hajjaj, the shortest way to settlement area of the Ammonites. That is the reason why the Tulul adh-Dhahab had, until the construction of the Roman road at the exit of Wadi az-Zarqa in Jordan Valley near the present village of Abu Zighan, a high strategic importance. Only about 6.5 kilometers west of the Tulul adh-Dhahab there is the large Tell of Dayr 'Alla (also written as Deir Alla), dating to the Bronze and Iron Age.