I have tried to get this as a BIG Header Picture, but am stuck with a mini one. Ah well, it will have to do for the moment. This was the most IMMENSE site. I was thinking at the start 60 acres or so but the further we walked and the site stretched out - more than half of it not excavated, it was clear it was about 200 acres of archaeology. Just AMAZING. It was also known as Antioch, a name I recognized but knew very little about. It was a Graeko-Roman city, originally known as Gerasa, and then Antioch on the Golden River. Sadly in 749 there was a massive earthquake, which destroyed much of the city. Earliest archaeology there dates from the Neolithic.
Sadly, I took SO many photographs, but they have not all loaded from either camera or phone. I will have to wait until Tam is here and can help me. There were videos too of the site, and of the chap playing the Bagpipes, accompanied by another on a drum. Then they got a chap to start dancing and we all joined in - imagine a take on Zorba the Greek performed by our motley crew!!! It was SUCH fun! Gabby has the 100s taken by our tour guide but not loaded them on my computer yet (I fear no room!)
We were first taken to the chariot racing arena - quite small and not on the scale of the Circus Maximus in Rome. The horses they used must have been pony sized as it was a very tight turn either end. I didn't take photos. Above is a complete circle of the Forum's colonnade. I did do a video but can't find it . . .
Greek inscriptions from the city strongly suggest that Jerash was founded by Alexander the Great and his general Perdiccas, who settled Macedonian soldiers there in 331 BC. Keith always said that if you went into Northern Turkey - or anywhere that Alexander the Great had been, you would see locals with grey eyes, and I have to say that many of the men we encountered around here (and elsewhere in Jordan) had amazing eyes - grey, grey/green, hazel.
This was the theatre where we danced to the bagpipes (which our tour guide insisted had been invented by the Jordanians). We entered it up steps and then you could sit on the upper terraces. However, there was a drop of about 12 feet to the next row down!
Above, I think this was the temple to Artemis, but I couldn't get a good photo as there were people swarming over it. We had been shown a temple to Zeus too, but he clearly wasn't as important as the Greek Goddess Artemis. She was the Goddess of the hunt and wild animals and the wilderness, of childbirth, and also of the moon. Zeus was the God of thunder and lightening and the sky, and of law and order. His temple was half the size of the one to Artemis. There was a long haired cat . . .
Of course, one of the site cats - rather pregnant too!
HERE is a short video about the site, worth looking up some others too. I was watching one earlier with a really local guide and he knew SO much. It truly was such an amazing place.
What a fascinating place. So envious!
ReplyDeleteThis holiday is regularly on offer - reduced from about £2,500 to less than £1,000.
DeleteI think I would have found this terrain rather forbidding--so much rock and ruins and so little green. The sense of history must be great--a succession of powers and kingdoms.
ReplyDeleteI've changed the header to show the more "treesy" area with 1000s of olive trees and natural forest, which was near the Aljoun castle (Aljoun Forest). We were there at the end of winter. No greenery went we left Amman, then two days later the grass had sprung into growth and there were tiny buds on the trees. The beginning of spring. Even the desert blooms and had we been at Wadi Rum between March and May, we would have experienced it.
DeleteThe different powers over the centuries had all left there mark. I was constantly amazed to be travelling in the footsteps of my hero Lawrence of Arabia - I will do a special post for that.
Impressive site. So much history in that region.
ReplyDeleteIt makes our Roman forts in UK look a wee bit pathetic.
DeleteThat is amazing that those columns are built to have 'a bit of give', and yet they've stood there for centuries! I got goose bumps looking at this. Amazing to think of all the people who've walked through this place in their lifetime.
ReplyDeleteI suspect though there is only so much give and a big earthquake would sort them out! I think there are so many thousands of untold stories lurking there amongst the ruins.
DeleteJerash is definitely a wondrous place, sadly emphasising the fall from grace of another civilisation. Hopefully Tam will sort your other photos out.
ReplyDeleteThough the earthquake certainly didn't help matters. Empires rise and fall.
DeleteTam will I am sure sort the photos. She's the best techie in the family.
Fascinating to look back at bygone times and imagine how life used to be. The video is very informative. I watched it on full screen. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed it. Which one did you watch? The one with the local guide was more informative, but both set the imagination on fire.
DeleteWhat an incredible place. It really gets the imagination going.
ReplyDeleteThere have been some tales to tell from that city, I am sure.
DeleteWhat an amazing place! I had heard of Antioch too. The squares and triangles in that floor would be a great design for a quilt.
ReplyDeleteI'll look for the other bit of mosaic which was exactly patchwork quilt!!
DeleteBit of catch up reading this morning. I'm really enjoying reading all your entries on your holiday. Really happy for you that you had a good time. You deserved it. I do hope you'll be able to find your missing photos. It must be very disappointing for you that you can't find them.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, I DID deserve the holiday and had a fabulous time. I'm sure Tam will help me with the missing photos. All the best ones I took for sketching when I got home are amongst them.
DeleteWow! Thank you so much for this post and the link to the video. I have been lucky to have enjoyed a couple of archaeological trips in Italy and walking holidays in Turkey. I only wish I'd had the opportunity to visit Jerash too; its amazing and how incredible wa the Graeco Roman civilisation. Thank you again
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed it and the links to the videos. I would like to visit Rome. Amongst many other places. Turkey is out of bounds now . . . I'm glad we went to Jordan when we could, in case things kick off there. As the guide said, we have bad neighbours.
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