Jerash

 Ok so here we go over a month ago S, Little Lady and I went on a trip to Jerash with George and Allison. It was 95 degrees out. Don't even ask me what that is in Celsius we are still trying to adjust to that but we do know when it is near 40 that is hot. lol We only got slightly lost. As in we turned at a sign that said Jarash instead of Jerash. Now you may look at that and say duh it is not the same thing but since our street has one name and 6 different spellings (there would be more except there are only 6 street signs) it seemed possible this was spelled funny too. We immediately turned around when we were going away from the city. After we parked and figured out how to get into the place (Little did we realize you had to venture through the bazaar to get in) We were there!!! It was only 1/2 a JD each because we have our residency cards. WOOOOHOOO for being a resident of Jordan. Otherwise it would have been 12 JD. Yeah they kinda stick it to the tourist. We walk in and immediately have to climb the stairs. I tell you this country is not handicap assessable anywhere. Anyways continuing on. We climb the stairs and we are looking at what is the Arch of Triumph or as our map has it  Hadrian's Arch.

Hadrian's Arch- built to commemorate the visit of Emperor Hadrian in 129 AD

 

It is pretty impressive huh?

Yep I thought so. It had beautiful carving and details that I cannot imagine what they would have looked like when they were new. It is hard to believe that all of the stonework is still so beautiful and distinguishable today (although there have been restorations made in places). I guess when you only have a month or so of rain a year it helps but I would have thought the amount of sand whipping around in the air would have eroded it more.

 Once you walk through the gate you walk past the chariot race hippodrome. The hippodrome is 245 m Long and 52m wide and could seat 15,000. and as I have told you in the past we were saddened to discover that because it was EID they did not have the chariot races.

The back wall of the Hippodrome-

 You continue walking past the long oval tracked hippodrome and eventually find the place where they are collecting your tickets. This is good I suppose, I mean it is nice to know you actually had to pay to get in. We walk through The South Gate (130 ad) and along the city walls and the real ruins start. The city walls were built in the beginning of the 4th century. The walls of the city that are visible now are from the byzantine era and are 3,456 m long.

 

Part of a 2nd century Olive Press

View to the right of the tunnel

We walked through a tunnel and past the guy selling “ cameras, memory cards, hats, sunglasses” (yep read that with an accent and you will no what we heard). Then we climbed more stairs and we were in the Forum or Oval Plaza depending on the map you are using.

Random stone details.

The oval plaza is an oval that is 90 x 80m surrounded by columns from the 1st century

Center colum/ fountain space

 In the center there is a tall column that marks the spot of a fountain from 7th century ad. This is where they do music and things during the Jerash festival that happens in July and the column now carries the Jerash Festival Flame.

Looking back from the Forum onto the tunnel and city walls

 

Once you are done in the Forum you can exit and walk along the colonnaded walkway or Cardo Maximus.

The Cardo is 800m. It was remolded in the late 2nd century and again in 170ad.

It is a large walkway that was once a street with columns on both sides. You can actually see chariot tracks left in the stone. In the past this street would have been lined with shops and would have been considered the main street of Jerash. It is a bit of a bumpy path and we were wise not to bring a stroller along. Periodically along the route you are looking at different ruins. Ok actually the entire place is ruins so you never really stop looking at them. You just hop along and see a bunch of stairs, pillars, doorways, etc. Here are many things we saw along the path.

The Cathedral

The Cathedral was originally a 2nd century Roman Temple of Dionysus and then it was rebuilt in the 4th century as a Byzantine church. Through the door way is a set of stairs and at the top of those stairs is the shrine of St. Mary

Church of Saint Theodore

 The Church of Saint Theodore was built in                    496 AD

The Nyphaeum

an ornamental fountain that was built in 191 AD and dedicated to nymphs. Water would cascade through 7 carved lions heads into small basins on the sidewalk. The large basin in front was an addition from the Byzantines.

Propylaeum

The propylaeum is entrance to the Processional way leading to the temple of Artemis.

The North Gate

Close up of the architecture

 Once we reached the North Gate we knew we needed to head up the path. Now the one strange thing about visiting these sites in Jordan is that there are no ropes, no security guards, no park rangers telling you “stay off the ruin”. There are not even signs saying it. So you are free to hop up and touch anything you like. You want to climb the thousand steps (ok I don’t know if it is 1,000 steps but there are a lot in this place) then go right ahead no one is stopping you. It is kinda strange to be able to just hop on history and get a real feel for it. This is one thing that would never happen in the US and yet these sites are still here. In the middle of a city but still here and seemingly doing well.

The North Gate was built in 115 AD

 So at this point we were still under the impression that there were chariot races starting in 20 minutes and we were on the far side of the city. SO we race through and skip past a bunch of stuff until we get back to the hippodrome.

Temple of Artemus

View from the overlook

One last look at the Oval Plaza/ Forum

We sit in the cool breeze for maybe 10 minutes and when the race was supposed to start and there were no chariots in sight we decided it was time to go home. We were hot, hungry and extremely tired. I also had extremely dirty feet. Instead of tan lines I had dirt lines because I wore sandals. Lol We made it to the car and gave Little Lady a bottle. Once she was finished we piled in the car and drove over to the Lebanese house for lunch. OH MY STARS!!! This place was great. We spend I think 30 JD on a lunch for the 4 adults that was amazing. We had grape leaves, hummus, fried kibbe, chicken tawouk, a meat platter (varying kebab meats), and pita, along with drinks. This place even has a small indoor playground for the kids. It was great. The one downside is do not be in a hurry. We were there for around 2 hours. It took forever to get someone to take our order and then we had to wait for the food but it was worth the wait. Once our bellies were full and we were all ready for a food coma we drove home. Yep perfect plan huh? S did a great job driving and it is only 40 minutes. We arrived back and came home to take a long nap and just rest. The heat really takes it out of ya.

Next time we go I think we will get the tour guide. In our rush to see the non exsistant chariots we decided to take the map and just wing it. I know we missed things and we may even have read it wrong who knows. So in the future I am sure we will see Jerash again and have a much better clue as to what went on. Oh and please notice that there is not a cloud in the sky. We have been in Jordan since the end of May and we can count the number of clouds we have seen with the exception of one day that was actually cloudy but that is only 4 maybe 5 days since we have been here.