Jerash - December 27, 2010

Today we took a step back in time to visit the Romans at their temples and theatres, walk down their streets and visit the hippodrome to see the gladiators fight and the chariots race.  Today we were off to Jerash in northern Jordan.

We entered the Roman city through Hardrian's Arch (left), walked along the street past the stores (middle) and into the Forum (right).  The forum was huge - 90m long and 80 m wide - and was probably used as a gathering site for markets and social gatherings.

The Temple of Zeus (middle), we did not see up close because we ran out of time but was up on the hill overlooking the Forum (left).  We walked along the cobbled street (right) called the "cardo maximus" (colonnaded street) to explore the city proper.  This was neat because we were able to see ancient grooves worn in the cobble stones from decades of wagon wheels, the crossroads, and in some places the underground storm sewers.  This slowed Patrick right down because then he had to have it all explained!

There was much exploring to be done throughout the city.  We walked through amazingly carved doorways (left), found a fountain (middle) and saw hundreds of pillars (right).  We even saw some wildlife - a lizard sunning itself on the stones.

We stumbled onto a stone cutting workshop.  Again, Patrick had to understand the workings of it before we could move on. :)  It was really cool to figure out the how the waterwheel moved the blades that then cut the stone to make the city.

At the Temple of Artemis (left) we were even able to sneak in a GC find.  We also found the Church of St Cosmos & St Damianus, which had some well preserved mosaic floors (middle and right).

Leaving the church, we went to the north theatre.  It was really neat to see the seating, the wooded floor for the stage and exploring the hallways.

Once done in the theatre we had to hustle back to the hippodrome to catch the soliders, gladators and the chariot races.  What a cool show!  A team of reinactors (soldiers with the Jordanian military) showed us Roman battle moves, mock battles, marching and defensive stategies.

We also learned that gladators were prisoners but well cared for because they were also their slaves and had a lot of training for the fights - so not many were killed because of the expense to train new ones.

Next came the much awaited chariot races.  Man they were moving!  It was all very exciting.

At the end of the show the kids were allowed to get closer looks and have their pictures taken.

So that concludes our Roman city tour.  On our way out of town to visit a castle we found another odd way of transporting livestock.  We saw camels in the back of pickups here in Abu Dhabi and now we saw horses being moved the same way. :)

The drive up Mt. 'Auf was beautiful.  The olive trees on the farms were all neatly aligned in rows.

It was very chilly on the top of the mountain but we braved it and had a picnic shwarma.  Ajloun Castle was very cool to explore.

We also went to Mar Elias to check out the floor mosaics.  They were wonderful but hopefully something will be done to protect them from the elements as they are currently lying in the open air with nothing more than a rope to keep people off.

After a fun filled, tiring day exploring northern Jordan we headed back to the hotel.  Tomorrow is another action packed day as we head down to Petra.