Jerash, Jordan

The hotels sell tours to many places around Amman but we decided to catch local transport for a fraction of the price and check out the Roman ruins at Jerash. It was built on a Neolithic settlement dating back 6,500 years.

Excavations have been going on here for 85 years and it is estimated that 90% is still not excavated. Around the 4th century, at the time of Alexander the Great, it possibly had a population of 20,000. The Persians invaded in 614 AD followed by the Muslim conquest in 636 AD. A series of earthquakes in 749 caused the settlement's decline. When the Crusaders came through they described it as uninhabited. The ruins were covered with sand over time and this helped preserve them until they were found in 1806 in quite good condition.
The oval forum
Some of the gates still exist as well as the colonnaded street with the original pavers where you can see the ruts caused by the Roman chariots. In the hippodrome they have revived the chariot races after 1500 years.

The amphitheatres have been restored and are used for annual festivals. Council meetings were held in the theatre and some of the seats still have the name of the tribes written in Greek characters on them. We were sung to by an Irish guy who was encouraged by his guide and the acoustics were great.

There are several temples and remains of a synagogue and several churches.
Mosaics
It was a 24 degree day and every girls' high school in the area decided to have a school trip on the day we chose to visit. Many of them sought us out to practise their few words of English and then giggle after being so brave. It became quite tiresome by the end of the day but great that they felt happy to talk to strangers.

We met this handsome couple at the theatre. He had previously worked for the tourist police at the complex and was showing his wife of one week around. He told us she was his cousin and that he had 5000 cousins, maybe he meant 500 but either way he has a lot of cousins!