Jerash, Ajjoun and Jordan River Valley

Oct 20, 2013 From Tom:

Jerash is the largest and best preserved Roman site outside of Italy. Frankly, it is much better than Corinth, Ephesus or Rome. While it may have been settled 2-3,000 yrs BC it really was established by Alexander the Great about 331 BC. It flourished with the Romans in the 1st Century as part of the Decapolis, or 10 cities in the region called the Levant (Palestine). It's about 48 km north of Amman and only about 30 miles from the Syrian border.

We had a week off, after teaching two classes, so we wanted to take advantage of the Eid al Adha holiday. It is a beautiful drive climbing out of the rolling hills/ desert region into forested mountains. The old Roman city, while sacked a few times and destroyed and buried in an earthquake, was nicely restored. It's probably the 2nd most popular visitor site in Jordan following Petra. (We're saving Petra for when we get a resident card, thus dropping the entrance fee from over $100 to about $1 per person.)

We probably walked 3-4 miles in the 4 hours we were there but it was well worth it. In addition to the original triumphal arches of Hadrian, the Hippodrome or chariot race and gladiator arena they had a semi-circular theater seating 15,000 and the original Roman Forum, Temples and columned "cardo maximus" or Main Street. What I appreciated most was the order and careful organization of the city within the walls. It puts to shame the "modern" cities built haphazardly and without any sense of dignity. Each street had a view, destination or terminus and the citizens were always guided to the prominent buildings via carefully organized promenades. Very regal.

In the Hippodrome were demonstrations by the Roman Centurians as well as chariot racing. As we were leaving we remarked that it felt like we were actually in Rome, not Jordan.

Ronna approaching Hadrian's Triumphal Arch at Jerash

A little short but has the right stuff. 

A humorous event was at the Roman Amphitheater. There were some Jordanian men, dressed as Roman soldiers, playing Scottish bagpipes. We overheard one guide saying that the bagpipes originated in Jordan and the Scots stole them and modified them. Wikipedia supports that, so it must be true.

After a long day, we celebrated at the coolest restaurant ever, called the Lebonese House, perched on a hillside. Large Arabic family groups were gathering for their holiday meal with lots of hugging and double kissing on the shaded roof terrace.

We pushed too far and tried to get to Ajloun, a Crusader castle on a mountaintop about 45 minutes north, toward Syria. It was a miserable drive through tiny, twisting, looping dog-paths and squeezing down the only streets of villages where the social life is smoking houkas on the curb. It was a bit scary and Ronna had had enough, especially since our GPS unit was now in failure mode and started leading us astray. After checking off the castle, we decided to try another route home, another mistake. More windy, twisty choked roads, leading through tiny villages where they were still slaughtering sheep, but this time "on the main street".  It was a bit tense.

Coming out of the mountains finally, we had an overlook view of the Jordan River Valley, a lush, flat agriculture zone between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea, about 150 miles. This is the border between Jordan and Israel, including the Palestinian West Bank. The Jordan River is the border and is a heavily guarded military zone. The areas between the military zone and the mountains are intensively developed greenhouse farming areas. It's the San Joaquin Valley of the Middle East. We drove along this for over 60 miles and saw constant greenhouses. We also went past the baptism site of Jesus but it was getting dark. We'll save that for another day.

As it turns out, there is a long standing and serious conflict between Israel, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon over the use of water in this valley. This was one of the real causes of the Six Day War of 1967 between Israel and Syria, Jordan and Egypt. It is my understanding that Israel and Jordan have now agreed to a major joint water development project in this area.

Our final leg was a tortuous, hairpin curve ascent of Mt. Nebo in the dark. Our little car could hardly make it. We would come around a curve and there would be a group of people having a party in the dark in the middle of the highway. We were so glad to be home. And our messy little Madaba looked great after all those "edge of existence villages".