|| Jerash || Pella and Umm Qais || Umm el Jimal and Ajlun ||
The Decapolis, meaning ten cities in Greek, consisted of ten Graeco-Roman cities in the land of northern Jordan, Syria and Palestine.
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| .:: Columns of Jerash |
Only a short hour's drive north of Amman is the GraecoRoman city of Jerash (Gerasa in ancient times), known as the Pompeii of the East for its extraordinary state of preservation. As they approach the city, visitors are greeted by the imposing triplearched gateway built to honor the Emperor Hadrian's arrival at Jerash in A.D. 129.
Jerash is considered the best preserved and most complete city of the Decapolis, a confederation of ten Roman cities dating from the lst Century B.C.
Nestled in a green and well-watered valley in the biblical land of Gilead, the remains of the ancient city have long attracted tourists, scholars and students from all over the world.
Today's visitors may wander among the original temples, theatres, plazas,baths and colonnaded streets, all enclosed within the remaining city walls. Within these walls have been found the remains of settlements dating from the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, the Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Umayyad and Abbasid periods, indicating human occupation at this location for more than 2,500 years.
Nightly sound and light shows through the summer months, and the annual Jerash Festival of Culture and Arts held each July, bring the ancient community to life for today's visitor.
One of these cities is Pella, a short drive north of Amman in the Jordan Valley. It is among the largest and most important archaeological sites in the region. Most of the visible structures date fi om the Roman, Byzantine and Islamic periods (2nd to l4th Centuries A.D.) and there is ample evidence of human occupation during the earlier Hellenistic, Persian, Iron, Bronze, Chalcolithic, Neolithic and Paleolithic periods. This huge, ancient city continues to be excavated, with evidence found of inhabitants dating back as far as 10,000 years.
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| .:: Umm Qais |
Of comparable importance among the Decapolis sites is Umm Qais, known in antiquity as Gadara, where the Ottoman Governor's house has been restored and opened as a museum. Gadara commands magnificent views over the northern Jordan Valley, the Sea of Galilee (Lake Tiberias), the Yarmouk River gorge and the Golan Heights. On a clear day the snowpeak of Mount Hermon is visible.
To the northeast of Gadara lies ancient Abila, more rural than Jerash and Umm Qais, where Roman temples, Byzantine churches and early mosques lie amidst olive groves and wheat fields. Excavations indicate that the site was inhabited 5,000 years ago in the Early Bronze Age, and appears to have been continually used by man since then.
Contrasting sharply with the splendors of Jerash and the other cities of the Decapolis is Umm el Jimal. On the edge of the stark, black basalt region of northeast Jordan, Umm el Jimal is one of the area's most impressive and eerie monuments of ancient civilizations. The town is filled with the remains of many black basalt stone houses, churches, a Roman barracks and a fort complex.
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| .:: Umm El Jimal |
A short twenty-minute drive west from Jerash, at the village of Ajlun, is a remarkable l2th Century A:D. castle on an awesome mnuntain top, Qalaat er Rabad. It was built in 1184 by Izzedine Usama, one of the generals of the Arab leader Salah ed Din (Saladin) .
Nearer to Amman is Iraq el Amir, an antiquity site dating back to the 2nd Century B.C., where the visitor finds a carefully restored Hellenistic villa.
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