Shafa Badran lies on the far northern edge of Amman, inside Greater Amman Municipality and the University district. The land is hilly, rising from about 700 to 1,000 metres, and borders Tariq and Al Jubayha to the south, Abu Nsair to the west and Russeifa to the east. Shafa Badran Street is the main route through the area, running from Yajouz Road in the south up to Birin Road, while Al Arab Street connects Abu Nsair with Marj Al-Furs.
The district is a patchwork of neighbourhoods, including Al-Kom Al-Sharqi, Al-Kom Al-Gharbi, Marj Al-Furs and Yajouz. Local tradition ties the name to the area's height and fresh air, and to a man called Badran who is said to have come here to recover from an illness.
Applied Science Private University and Al Balqa Applied University's Amman University College are among the institutions in and around the area, together with a long list of public and private schools. Everyday services include a public health centre and a number of pharmacies. In the Yajouz part of the district there are reminders of a much older past: a Byzantine archaeological site, a late Ottoman-era mosque associated with Abdullah Pasha Al Dawood, and terebinth trees in the old Yajouz cemetery believed to be more than a thousand years old.
