Jerash the Romans (strange guys) had a great time. The Roman excavations are of about the same size as the modern part of the town. It is really amazing to see so MANY columns. You can imagine Jerash is sometimes called the Pompeii of the East.
Probably because of its location (only 40 kms from Amman), Jerash has even more visitors than Petra.
Besides columns, there are also two amfitheatres and a couple of temples (with columns, of course).
The Roman famous for the wall between England and Scotland, Hadrian, has built an arch here, called the Hadrian Arch. To see the Arch, you’ll have to go to Jordan yourself, because we didn’t include this picture.
This fascinating city makes a great day-trip from Amman, particularly in spring, when the wildflowers are in bloom. The drive will take you less than an hour, but will transport you 2000 years back in time.
Within the remaining city walls, archeologists have found the ruins of settlements dating back to the Neolithic Age, indicating human occupation of this location for more than 6500 years. This is not surprising, as the area is ideally suited for human habitation. Jerash has a year-round supply of water, while its altitude of 500 meters gives it a temperate climate and excellent visibility over the surrounding low-lying areas.
The history of Jerash is a blend of the Greco-Roman world of the Mediterranean basin and the ancient traditions of the Arab Orient. Indeed, 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