Our last outing on the tour was to Jerash, Jordan, probably 45 minutes north of Amman, and just 20 minutes south of the Syrian border. What purposefully little I had read about Jerash was gushing, but I decided I would prefer to go in relatively cold, knowing little. I decided I wanted to be surprised.
Jerash far exceeded my expectations. It is simply the best Roman ruins of a city I’ve ever been too. In past visits to Roman ruins, I’m always in awe because the ruins are roughly 2000 years olds. I actually was worried that I would be totally underwhelmed, coming off of Egypt, where stuff ranges from 2000 to 5000 years old. Nope, I walked around Jerash in a complete sense of awe and excitement.
Alas, Carol, who shares my love of really old stuff like Roman cities, Cathedrals from the Middle Ages, and now Egyptian temples tested positive that morning for COVID. Even though there was an outbreak of COVID at the very end of Egypt tour (five people overall got COVID out of 24 tourists, plus one guide and one bus driver). Carol had originally tested negative a couple days earlier. Her only symptoms were a cold, but she tested again as the number of cases from the tour climbed from one to three (and then a fifth around the same time as Carol).
Osama Alsmadi, our man in Jordan, gave us a very detailed tour of nearly all of the most important components of the city. And they are dramatic. The sun was out for the first time during our four days in Jordan,
(On the bus ride, Osama told the funny story of a tour he was giving where he introduced himself first, and then introduced the bus driver, whose name just happened to be “Jihad.” He said he got a LOT of nervous looks from the people on the tour that first day.)
The result is that the plentiful columns, the roads, and the temples were all bathed in sunlight, resulting in dramatic sweeping views. The Roman ruins are surrounded by the current city of Jerash, so you look past a massive Roman gate and there are apartment buildings. There are more discoveries being made outside the main Roman town, and odds are that many ruins are covered by dirt and current buildings. That’s how life is.
I won’t recount each section we visited, but will instead incorporate that into the photo section.
Jerash is built on a hill, so we took the low road (two of us are political consultants, so we can’t help) from beginning to end. Then, Osama gave us about eighty minutes to wander around, so we all went up to the Artemis Temple and then wandered around the high road. It’s very cool to have that much time to go where we wanted to go.
I happily snapped over 200 pictures, including a bunch of selfies that I texted back to Amman for Carol. I wasn’t trying to make her feel bad for missing the day, but to let her know I was thinking of her.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a place with more columns – apparently the town is known as “The City of 1,000 columns,” but Osama believes the actual number is higher than a (sarcasm font) puny 1,000!
Interestingly, Jerash is NOT a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In this case, “Not UNESCO still means you must go.” The reasons UNESCO has not elected it to the amazing Earth Hall of Fame that is the World Heritage list are two-fold, according to Osama.
The first is that early on, the reconstruction used concrete instead of the mix that looks more authentic. Of course, that was in the 1930s and 40s. UNESCO wants the concrete replaced with what’s used now. Of course, that would cost gobs of money (I can’t put a concrete figure on it, but know that it is high) and take tons of time (I can’t put a concrete figure on the length of time).
Editor: Really trying to cement this blog as a mixture of interesting facts, your reactions, photos, and bad puns, are you? Writer: Finally, someone who gets me!
The second is that the city of Jerash hosts a big concert everywhere on site, as the acoustics are tremendous. UNESCO says the site shouldn’t be used for that, but it is such a tradition in Jerash that they put the request in the circular file (if anyone under age 50 reads this blog, a “circular file” is a trash can.
Look, I know I’m enthusiastic about a lot of places we visit, but if you are planning a trip to Jordan, give yourself a day to get to Jerash. The drive is beautiful, past rolling hills replete with rocks, large mountains, small towns, olive groves, pine forests, and orange trees fat with ripe oranges (well, at least when we went – depends on the season). Osama even pointed out his hometown. It’s at the top of a 4,000 foot high mountain, and was covered in snow (snow not always included).
Don’t just do Petra, the Dead Sea (which we didn’t, although I’ve been to the Israeli side), and Amman if you go to Jordan. Make time for Jerash. All six of us were quite taken with it, and I personally would put it up there, to use baseball parlance, just a half game behind Petra. Oh, and I’m hopeful it becomes a UNESCO World Heritage site. Thinking of helping with the polling!
So there's a LOT of selfies here, but I took extra to text to Carol back at the hotel, since she was stuck back at the hotel in Amman.
1 comment:
This sold me on a visit!
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