Oct 24 – Jarash and Ajloun Castle

Another ancient city of ruins today…Jarash (Jerash), a very ancient city with Greco-Roman-Crusader-Mamluk-Ottoman history.  It was a huge city with some of the best preserved columns we have seen anywhere…and the columns at this site are everywhere.

The main entrance is through Hadrian’s Gate.

We then visited the hippodrome, which is just outside the city walls.  It is on the smaller side and originally seated about 15,000 spectators.

One end of the wall surrounding the hippodrome had been restored and part of it was currently have some work completed on it.  They had wooden scaffolding holding up the arch from the inside.  It gave us some insight into how they were originally constructed. 

Near the Hippodrome were the remains of some rooms with mosaic floors. 

Then it was to the South Gate and into the city proper. 

We saw the Temple of Zeus…a number of columns still in place.

And the massive Oval Plaza or Cardo Plaza.  We have seen many Roman forums (central meeting areas) but this one is huge and the only one we have ever seen that is oval.  Our guide said that most of the columns in the complex had been buried under dirt, and had remained standing and had not needed to be restored/rebuilt. 

Adjacent to the plaza was the South Theater.

The Scaena of the theater (backdrop building to the stage) had been beautifully restored.

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Video of South Theater performance
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This is a view from the top of the South Theater, across the Oval Plaza and down North South cross street that runs through the city.

Then it was a long walk to the other end of the city.  We passed the South Decumanus (a street that ran east/west from the entire width of the city.  Only part of it had been excavated. 

We also stopped at the Church of Cosmas and Damianus where we saw the mosaic floor. 

Next was the imposing Temple of Artemis. 

To one side of the temple was a row of columns buried in the hillside.  We could only see the capitals and the top portion of the columns.  Would look really great if they ever decide to dig them out.

Some of the columns had rather large holes in them…some birds had set up housekeeping in them.

We visited the North Theater…smaller than the South one…

and could see the North Gate in the distance.  We decided not to go that far. 

Then we headed back to the entrance via the Cardo Street, also lined with columns. 

Stopped to see the Nymphaeum, a huge fountain that is only partially restored.

We didn’t go into the remains of the cathedral but it was just off the Cardo.

There was a small museum at the entrance.  It warranted a quick peek. 

Some random photos of Jarash.

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More Jarash
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We had lunch at the restaurant nearby and then headed out again, this time to the town of Ajloun and it’s castle.  This one was a 12^th-century Ayyubid castle that was located on the site of an old Byzantine period monastery.  It had undergone a reasonable amount of renovation and warranted a bit of exploration.

Exterior.

Interior.

The views of the surrounding countryside and town were superb.

On the way back to Amman we stopped at a honey shop for Tara to do some honey shopping.  Funny way of spelling "Beekeepers".

And Jafer took us to a bakery for some sweets.  We have been getting a lot of Jordanian sweets on this trip.  In fact, we had eaten so much so late that we decided not to go out for dinner.

A lot of walking today but the sites were great.