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| Two views of Jerash's Roman Forum |
Jordan’s wonderful Greco-Roman city of Jerash is one of the
most beautiful Roman cities I’ve visited anywhere in the world. It spreads across open fields, full of
wildflowers in March and April, with its warm sandstone columns and stones glowing in the sunlight. Centuries
after the Romans built the roads, colonnades, theaters, temples, markets, forums, and houses that made up the Roman city, the Byzantines took over,
building churches alongside the earlier structures, using stones from the Roman period. An 8th century AD earthquake
destroyed most of the city and later earthquakes finished it off.
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| Roman columns and storm clouds |
We visited Jerash on a stormy day, just before a rare
rainstorm drenched the city. You could
easily spend a full day wandering, pretty much alone, among the ruins, but we
kept an eye on the rain clouds, spent several hours enjoying the site, and
scrambled into a restaurant just before the rain poured down in sheets. Quite unusual for arid Jordan.
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| Roman theater in Jerash |
As in most Roman cities, the Forum was the heart of the city. The graceful Forum in Jerash is surrounded by
columns and crossed by the Roman road Trajan built. After Trajan, Herod visited the city,
welcomed by a huge arch constructed in his honor.
The theaters have amazing acoustics. You can stand in just the right place on the
stage and be heard easily throughout the seats rising steeply up the
sides of the theater.
Today, there is other life in Jerash, besides tourists.
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bird nesting in Roman column
below: columns and capitals of church |
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| Roman stone flower and today's daisy |
The Byzantine church of St. George has beautiful mosaics
that are, unfortunately, fully exposed to the weather. Jerash would like to protect these treasures,
but doesn’t have the money. In some
ways, I’d love to see the mosaics better protected, but would hate to see ugly
tin roofs mar the open serenity of Jerash.
It is such a pleasure to wander the unmarked paths among the ruins,
visiting these ancient structures as they were 1500 to 2000 years ago,
imagining the busy marketplace, roads filled with goods and chariots, priests
in their temples, and the daily life of the inhabitants.
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| left: family walking along Roman road; right: Hadrian's Arch |
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mosaics in St. George's church
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| Temple at Amman Citadel |
After the deluge, we returned to Amman and its Citadel, atop
one of the hills that make up the city.
There are the remains there of a fortress and a temple as well as a
small museum with sculptures from 6,000 BC.
Obviously, people have occupied what is not Amman for many thousands of
years. Below the Citadel is a
beautifully-preserved Roman amphitheater, surrounded by the buildings of the modern city.
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| Roman Amphitheater, Amman |
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Amman Citadel with modern city behind
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| 8500 year old sculpture from Amman |
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