I never imagined that I’d find so many interesting sights within a couple of hours of Amman. Most impressive was Jerash, an extremely well-preserved Greco-Roman city located about fifty kilometers north of the Jordanian capital. While the history of Jerash dates back over 6000 years, the city was at its height during the period of Roman rule, especially during the 2ndcentury CE (the time of Emperor Hadrian the Great). Walls that the Romans built around the city as defense against local non-Romans as well as the Persians are still standing.
Under a brilliant blue sky, we admired the imposing triple-arched northern gateway built to honor the Emperor Hadrian when he came to visit the city. We strolled on the ancient paving stones of the city’s Cardo Maximus (main street), climbed to hilltop temples devoted to Artemis and Zeus, and strode across the huge colonnaded forum with its unusual oval shape. Since Jerash became a Christian city in the 4thcentury, we also saw the ruins of several Byzantine churches.
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| Entrance to Jerash through the northern gate (Hadrian's gate) |
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| Along the Cardo |
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| The Forum with its Ionic columns |
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| Along a Roman street |
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| A fountain |
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| Temple of Artemis |
In the 7thcentury, Jerash was conquered, first by the Persians and then by the Muslims. The city’s importance ebbed after the Muslim Abbasid Caliphate supplanted the Umayyad rulers in the 8thcentury and moved their capital from Damascus to Baghdad. Another factor contributing to the decline of Jerash was the change in trade routes, as sea routes began to eclipse overland routes. In addition, large parts of the city were destroyed by an earthquake in the 8thcentury.
We could easily have spent an entire day (or more) exploring the ruins of Jerash, but after a few hours, we gladly took seats in what remains of the Roman hippodrome, which originally had seating for 15,000 people. It was time for the gladiator show and chariot race.
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| Roman legionnaires |
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| Chariot race in the hippodrome |
Later that day, on our way back to Amman, we made a brief stop to see Ajlun castle, perched high on a hilltop. The sun had slipped behind the clouds and raindrops were just beginning to fall as we climbed the stone steps into the Muslim limestone fortress. The castle was built in Crusader style in the late 12thc AD under orders of Salahuddin (aka Saladin), founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. It served to protect important communication routes and trade caravans and to stop the territorial expansion of the Crusaders. In fact, the Crusader armies never succeeded in overtaking it. In the 13thcentury, the castle was damaged in a Mongol attack. However, it continued to serve as a military garrison for the Ottomans.
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| Approach to Ajlun Castle |
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| Interior of the castle |
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| View from the castle |
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| Warming up with Bedouin tea and coffee |
Thoroughly chilled after exploring the halls and chambers of the castle and standing on its windswept overlooks, we warmed up at a Bedouin stand with cups of mint tea and cardamom coffee.
The following day, we traveled a short distance south of Amman to see two more historic sights. From the bus, I looked out at the dramatic landscape and got a better sense of the geography of the region. Nad explained that the Jordan Rift Valley is part of the Great Rift Valley that extends from eastern Africa northward into Lebanon and eastern Turkey. The collision of two tectonic plates causes frequent earthquakes that rearrange the region’s geographical features.
When we reached Mount Nebo, we stopped to visit the memorial to Moses. According to the Bible, Moses stood on this mountaintop to get a glimpse of the Holy Land that he would never enter. The site is believed to be his burial place. Christian pilgrims started coming to Mount Nebo as early as the 4thcentury when a church was erected here. Fragments of the original Byzantine mosaics are preserved in the modern church and museum run by the Franciscan order. Before we left Mount Nebo, we looked down into the Jordan River Valley and saw the Dead Sea and the cities of Jericho and Jerusalem in the distance.
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| Byzantine mosaics |
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| Close-up of tesserae |
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| Looking out from Mount Nebo |
A little farther south, we came to Madaba, a predominantly Christian town known for its mosaics. Christianity flourished in this region in the late Roman period and during Byzantine times. In the Greek Orthodox Church of St. George, we viewed a 6thcentury mosaic map set into the church floor. The Byzantine era mosaic, which consists of over two million tesserae (tiny stone pieces), shows Jerusalem and other holy sites. If you look at the right side of the map, you’ll see the Dead Sea and, below it, the city of Jerusalem.
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| Mosaic floor map in Madaba's Church of St. George |
We had a chance to learn about the making of mosaics at the Madaba Arts and Handicrafts Center, a workshop and gallery sponsored by the Jordan River Foundation. As we watched an artist do the painstaking work of cutting and setting the tesserae, we learned that the design is created wrong side up and is flipped over after the pieces are set in place. We saw beautiful examples of mosaic work and other traditional arts (ceramics, jewelry, ostrich egg painting) in the gallery. Nad had instructed us to bargain if we were interested in making any significant purchases. I wish I could have brought home a mosaic table, but the price for even the smallest one was way over my budget.
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| Working on a mosaic |
There wasn’t time for regret, however. We were headed south to Petra, which will be the subject of my next blog post.
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