Jarash

A few weeks ago we went to Jarash to see the old Roman ruins. We found some guy on the side of the street who offered us a ride up north for 1 JOD each. We couldn't refuse. So, we headed up the hill, about 45 minutes north, to see the city. It was super hot this day so we didn't stay exactly as long as I would have liked, but we had a nice audio tour with our portable device that explained a lot of what we were looking at. Because it was a few weeks ago and we've done a lot of touring since then, I don't remember a lot of details, so I'll just put up the pics and a website where you can learn more about the old city.

Jerid tried on a traditional Kafia that he ended up buying. He looked pretty sexy in his arab wear :) We also bought an original oil painting from this guy. We're bringing home quite the collection of art, hope we can get it all back on the plane!


The southern gate to the city. Just inside these doors were stables to the left where you could drop off your donkey, horse or camel.


Inside one of the old palaces that is now used to display the most detailed stones that they've found. The ceiling is, as you can see, covered in soot and smoke from the hundreds of years of candles and fires inside.


Heading onto the main street toward the city center where the markets would have been. The layout of the city would have been pretty spectacular then. As you can see from the cracks in the streets, there were quite a few earthquakes that helped take down this city. The main quake in 700 something AD left the city lifeless.


Detailing on a fallen stone.


This was my favorite place. This was the public pool/bathhouse. In each of the crevices there were roman statues that had water fountains pouring out of them into the pool below. You can see the holes in the stones fed the water. There would have been huge canvases threaded through wooden beams that covered the top of the semi-circle so that the pool was partially shaded. when you look inside the pool, under all the garbage and fallen stones, you can still see the details of carved fish at the bottom of the pool.


This was some queens temple, I can't remember, but it was HUGE! As you can see by the pictures of Jerid at the top and me at the bottom, this was quite a trek to the top. Everything was still in great shape.





Jerid standing at the entrance to the northern ampitheater. The people must have been pretty short back then because Jerid had to duck in a lot of the doorways.


The Temple of Zeus (from the side) the temple is being excavated right now, so we couldn't get to it or get a great view of how magnificent it really is. This is set up on top of a hill above the city center.


A great view of the great size of the city. You can see the south gate at the very furthest point in the photo. About 1/4 inch right from Jerid's right shoulder.


Another great outing in a fascinating country. Can't wait to see it again when Jerid's parents come out. They're coming out for 12 days on July 11th, we're very excited! What a great opportunity they have to see this part of the world!

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