A single-storey purpose-built museum tucked next to the Mamluk fortress, the Archaeological Museum tells the long story of Aqaba as a Red Sea port — from the Bronze Age site of Tell el-Kheleifeh (sometimes identified with Biblical Ezion-Geber) through the Nabataean and Roman commercial settlement of Aila, the early Islamic city of Ayla, and the medieval and Ottoman castle.
The collection is small but well-presented: glazed ceramics, coins from a dozen different mints, glass and bronze fragments, and an unusual collection of Arabic inscriptions on tombstones and lintels. Allow forty minutes; the museum is included on the joint ticket with Aqaba Castle and the Sharif Hussein Bin Ali Mosque.