Jerash

Yesterday, we made our first venture outside of Amman and visited the ancient Roman city ruins at Jerash. It was amazing, and, although I have selected a few pictures from the hundreds I took, none of the pictures do this place justice. Our visit to Jerash was a multi-sensory experience. Our experience was shaped not only by sight, but also by sound, smell, touch, and taste. I'll get back to that in a moment; first, some history.

People have inhabited Jerash for more than 6500 years. General Pompey conquered the area in 63 BC and it came under Roman rule. It was one of the ten great Roman Cities. While it was under Roman rule, Jerash was known as "Gerasa," and it is one of the best preserved Roman provincial towns in the world. The ancient Roman city, which has been undergoing excavation and restoration for the past 70 years, includes examples of stone-paved and colonnaded streets, hilltop temples, theatres with amazing acoustics, spacious public squares and plazas, baths, fountains, and city walls.

My son's blog explains the Biblical significance of Jerash:

In Luke 8:26, Jerash is referred to as the "region of the Garasenes." If you know your bible well, [you know that] this is where Jesus banishes the demons from the man and sends them into the swine who jump off the cliff. Later, in the same chapter (Luke 8), Jesus is touched by the sick woman wanting to be healed in the street and then Jesus is taken to the house where a daughter is claimed to be dead. Jesus simply says "Stop wailing . . . she is not dead but asleep . . . My child, get up!" and up she goes.

In addition, Byzantine Christians conducted an annual ceremony at this red marble fountain commemorating Jesus's turning water into wine.

So, back to our multi-sensory visit to Jerash. Our visit to Jerash stimulated all of our senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste.

Sight:

Of course, there was much to see. The ruins are at the top of a high hill (though not the highest point in the area) and so the views were spectacular.

This next photo shows a portion of a mosaic floor in a bath house. The tiles are completely exposed to the sun and other weather, so they have faded a lot and many tiles from the large floor are destroyed or missing. I enhanced the color on this photograph to show my estimation of what the floor might have looked like when it was in use. (Notice the peacock!)

This photo shows part of a fountain with some Roman lettering.

This photo shows the Temple of Artemis. Artemis is the patron goddess of the city. This was supposedly the most beautiful temple in the city and was decorated with beautiful marble paneling.

Hearing:

We visited Jerash on Friday, which is the day of Salat al-Jumu'ah, the Muslim Friday congregational prayer. Salat al-Jumu'ah consists of a khutba (a sermon) followed by Raka'ah (part of the Salat ritual). The khutba is broadcast from the mosques' minarets. Consequently, we heard the sounds of the voices from all directions saying the khutba. Mostly we heard spoken voices, but occasionally, we also heard the beautiful singing.

Added to that amazing sound, there was the sound of bagpipe music. This picture shows the man who played the bagpipes in the old Roman theater. The acoustics were so good that the sound of the bagpipes could be heard all over the area of the ancient ruins (plus, bagpipes are just loud anyway).

Touch:

One of the things that makes the ruins at Jerash unique is that visitors are allowed to touch and even climb on the ruins. Here is a picture of Maggie on top of a giant wall.

Smell:

The spring wild flowers were in bloom. They were beautiful and stimulated not only our sense of smell, but also our allergies!

Taste:

After spending about two and a half hours touring the ruins, we were ready for an authentic Jordanian lunch, which we had at the Jordan House Restaurant. This was our first "local" meal. Our lunch was significantly more expensive than we expected (50 JD = $70). We should have guessed that it would be expensive since it was the only restaurant at the Jerash ruins--the second most popular tourist destination in Jordan (Petra is first). But, it was delicious! I especially liked the salad bar, from which we indulged in lots of fresh vegetable salads as well as some especially yummy hummus, labneh, and baba ghanoush.

See the rest of my photos from Jerash here.