Jerash, Jordan

On our second full day in Jordan, we spent the morning touring the remains of Jerash. In ancient times, Jerash was one of the wealthiest and most cosmopolitan cities in the near east due to its prime location along trade routes. Settled as early as the 6th-7th century BC, and founded as a Hellenistic city in the 2nd century BC, today Jerash is noted for its fine Roman and Byzantine architecture. It was plain to see why it's considered some of the largest and best preserved Roman ruins outside of Rome.

The Romans sure did love a good column! And theaters - they're everywhere in the ancient world, these amazing places built to hold thousands for entertainment purposes.

Most of the structures still visible in Jerash today date from its Golden Age during the 2nd century AD. When Emperor Hadrian came to visit Jerash, this triumphal arch below was constructed in his honor and given his name.

The population of Jerash is thought to have been anywhere from 10-25,000 at the height of its prosperity. It's amazing to me that in addition to all of the structures, the ancient folks hand cut stone to lay down for roads. Literally thousands upon thousands of rocks laid all over to create walkways and roads  several millennia ago, much of it built at the command of Emperor Trajan. And check out the pics of a couple of the ancient manholes - unbelievable!

The teacher in me... seeing writing always makes me wish I could read it.

In this area of Jerash, seen below, was the ancient Roman version of La Cantera Mall here in San Antonio. It was an open air market, with vendors having a place to set up and sell their wares. You can still see the remains of an old fountain in the middle. Check out the animals carved into the still standing stones we saw at the back part of this section of the market - that was where the butcher was located.

The picture below illustrates where we were standing at one point in Jerash in relation to how the city functioned 2000 yrs ago. Looking down we could see an old olive oil press that would have used a donkey to turn it. However, it's now inaccessible due to time's dirt/debris covering it up. It's now located several yards below the current "level" of Jerash. Much of Jerash isn't visible because it's hidden under the soil. Or lying in pieces, waiting to be reconstructed.

Below are pictures of the remains of early Christian churches in Jerash. You can see bars across door access in the pics. We were only allowed to view the churches from above since folks had started stealing tiles from the mosaic floor for keepsakes.

It is unknown when Christianity arrived in Jerash. However, Jerash did serve as the residence of a bishopric, who is recorded to have attended the Council of Seleucia in 359 AD. By the 6th century AD, Jerash contained fifteen churches. The oldest church - the two pics above - is Jerash's cathedral, which dates to the late 4th century AD. The mosaic floor below was located in a separate church.

There is also at least one Biblical connection to Jerash I discovered. Jerash was known as Gerasa or Gerash in Biblical times, and is mentioned in Mark 5 and Luke 8 when "Jesus Restores a Demon-Possessed Man." It reads as follows in Luke 8:26... "They sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, which is across the lake from Galilee." In the story it mentions the demon-possessed man lived in the tombs in this area. Below is a picture I took of one of the tombs I saw in Jordan.

Alas, Jerash fell victim to the winds of change. The Persians captured, plundered and occupied Jerash in the earlier part of the 7th century AD. By the time the armies of the Arabs arrived a few years after that, they surrendered immediately because they were so weakened. New trade routes began to bypass this region, wealthier citizens moved to follow the money and thus began a period of steep decline in Jerash. In the early middle ages, a series of earthquakes made the city uninhabitable and it was abandoned. Excavations in Jerash began in the 1920s, and much is still yet to be unearthed to better understand its history.