Jordan continued to amaze us with the ancient archeological sites that it has uncovered. We spent some time at Jeresh, which we had never heard of before and couldn’t believe how well preserved it was.
It is located north from Amman in a fertile valley where we saw many greenhouses and garden nurseries along the way…
A close second to Petra on the list of favorite destinations in Jordan, the ancient city of Jerash boasts an unbroken chain of human occupation dating back more than 6,500 years and is only about 45km north of Amman and because of its water the site has been settled at least since Neolithic times. The city's golden age came under Roman rule and the site is now generally acknowledged to be one of the best-preserved Roman provincial towns in the world and one of the Decapolis cities once named Geras
The imposing entrance gate to the city
The impressive, triple-arched gateway was built to celebrate Emperor Hadrian's visit in 129–130 A.D., although it's now used as the main entry point to the site.
Some of the detail…
The site was discovered in 1806 buried under the sand and it was started to be excavated in the 1920s, though most of the city is still under ground. It is a huge site in the middle of modern day Jerash and stretches right into the old part of the city…
Our guide Sanir was born near here but spent many years in Canada before retiring back to Jerash. I always had to hurry them along because they were constantly chatting!
The original stone streets are still intact with the marks of the chariots still visible…
Just past the gates are the remains of the Hippodome which was built to hold 15000 spectators for the chariot races…
Then there are the remains of a church with a fountain in the middle…
There are still mosaics remaining on the floor of one of the churches, there were also synagogues found on the site…
One of the best preserved buildings located on the highest point of land is the Temple of Artemis. It has giant columns…
Our guide pointing out how big they are…
The temple was built in honor of Artemis who was the patron goddess of Gerasa and construction started in 2nd century AD…
Details on top of the columns. It is believed that throughout the city there were coverings across the columns to provide shade from the hot sun.
A smaller amphitheatre is still used today for events, when we were there a college class was doing a session on AI…I thought what a contrast between the old and the new!
The shopping street where the merchants would set up to sell their wares…
Don wearing the traditional Jordanian headdress. We saw lots of people wearing the black and white one which is Palestinian.
Believed to be the public baths…
A few more shots of this spectacular site which was partially destroyed by an earthquake in 749AD.
We really enjoyed this visit as it gave us an insight into another world in another time.
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