as a Beta− global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. Moreover, it was named one of the Middle East and North Africa's best cities according to economic, labor, environmental, and socio-cultural factors. The city is among the most popular locations in the Arab world for multinational corporations to set up their regional offices, alongside Doha and only behind Dubai. The city is served by the Amman Bus and the Amman Bus Rapid Transit public transportation systems. Another BRT system under-construction will connect the city to nearby Zarqa. Etymology Amman derives its name from the ancient people of the Ammonites, whose capital the city had been since the 13th century BCE. The Ammonites named it 𐤓𐤁𐤕 𐤏𐤌𐤍, Rabat ʻAmmān, with the term Rabat meaning the "Capital" or the "King's Quarters". In the Hebrew Bible, Rabat ʻAmmān is referred to as "Rabbat Bnei ʿAmmon" (Biblical Hebrew: , Tiberian Hebrew Rabbaṯ Bəne ʿAmmôn), shortened in Modern Hebrew to "Rabbat Ammon" , and appears in English translations as "Rabbath Ammon". Ptolemy II Philadelphus, the Macedonian ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom who reigned from 283 to 246 BC, renamed the city "Philadelphia" (; literally: "brotherly love"), after himself, after occupying it. By the Islamic era, the Rashidun Caliphate restored its ancient semitic name and called it Amman in the 7th century AD. History Neolithic period The Neolithic site of 'Ain Ghazal today lays in the outskirts of Amman. At its height, around 7000 BC (9000 years ago), it had an area of and was inhabited by ca. 3000 people (four to five times the population of contemporary Jericho). At that time, the site was a typical aceramic Neolithic village. Its houses were rectangular mud-bricked buildings that included a main square living room, whose walls were made up of lime plaster. The site was discovered in 1974 as construction workers were working on a road crossing the area. By 1982, when the excavations started, around of road ran through the site. Despite the damage brought by urban expansion, the remains of 'Ain Ghazal provided a wealth of information. 'Ain Ghazal is well known for a set of small human statues found in 1983, when local archeologists stumbled upon the edge of a large pit containing them. These statues are human figures made with white plaster, with painted eyes. Thirty-two figures were found in two caches, fifteen of them full figures, fifteen busts, and