-JeRaSh, JoRdAn-

JeRaSh, JoRdAn

Map of Jerash, Jordan

• Jerash, located 48 km north of Amman and nestled in a quiet valley among the mountains of Gilead, is the grandeur of Imperial Rome being one of the largest and most well preserved sites of Roman architecture in the World outside Italy.

• To this day, its paved and colonnaded streets, soaring hilltop temples, handsome theaters, spacious public squares and plazas, baths, fountains and city walls pierced by towers and gates remain in exceptional condition.

• The history of Jerash is a blend of the Greco-Roman world of the Mediterranean basin and the ancient traditions of the Arab Orient.

• The name of the city itself reflects this interaction. The earliest Arabic/Semitic inhabitants named their village Garshu.

• The Romans later Hellenised the former Arabic name into Gerasa, and at the end of the 19th century, the Arab and Circassian inhabitants of the small rural settlement transformed the Roman Gerasa into the Arabic Jerash.

• It was not until the days of Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC that Jerash truly began to develop into a sizeable town. But it was during the period of Roman rule that Jerash, then known as Gerasa, enjoyed its golden age.

• The first known historical reference to Jerash dates back to the 2nd or early 1st century BC. This reference is attributed to Josephus, a historian from the Holy Land, who referred to it as the the place to which Theodorus, the tyrant of Philadelphia, removed his treasure for safe keeping in the Temple of Zeus.
  

• Shortly afterward, Theodorus lost Jerash to Alexander Jannceus, a religious priest. Soon after Rome took control of Syria, Emperor Pompey, in 63 BC, named conquered Jerash as one of the great cities of the Decapolis League.

• This brought great economic benefits to Jerash and trade flourished with the Nabataean Empire based in Petra.

• In 106 AD, Emperor Trajan annexed the wealthy Nabataean Kingdom and formed the province of Arabia. This brought even greater trading riches pouring into Jerash, which enjoyed a burst of construction activity.

• Granite was brought from as far away as Egypt, and old temples were rebuilt according to the latest architectural fashion.

• By the middle of the 5th century, Christianity had become the major religion of the region and numerous churches were constructed in Jerash under the Byzantines. Many churches were constructed of stones taken from pagan temples - and the remains of several can be seen today.

• The last church was built in 611, but it all went downhill from there. The city was invaded by Persians in 614, captured by Muslims in 635 and badly damaged by several earthquakes in the 8th century.

• In 720, Caliph Yazid II decreed that "all images and likenesses in his dominions, of bronze and of wood and of stone and of pigments, should be destroyed." Obedience to this command can be seen in the mosaics of some of Jerash's churches, such as that of St. John the Baptist.

• But others, already so ruined that their mosaics were not visible (such as the Church of Sts. Cosmos and Damianus), escaped the destruction.

The Cathedral, Jerash.

The large Roman theater of Jerash.

The stage of South Theater, Jerash.

The oval plaza and other ruins of Jerash, with the modern city behind.

Side view of the Oval Plaza

The Colonnaded (Cardo) Street.

Byzantine church of Sts. Cosmas and Damian.

Mosaic floor in Sts. Cosmas and Damian.

The main Roman road, the Cardo Maximus.