Jerash – Roman sensory overload

Yesterday we really did travel back in time – Jerash – or Gerasa is this incredibly well preserved Roman ruin –it was completely submerged in sand for centuries and they have only been exacavating here for 30 years. Hard ground and around 28 even in the winter – no wonder the archaeologists near the entrance were having such a tough time.

One of the Decapolis – that is one of the places knocked over from the Persians by Alexander the Great around 332 BCE this town was then in turn taken over and redesigned byt the Roman Imperial machine. It become one of originally 10 towns that we had identical layouts throughout the empire – to allow the easy transit of goods across the empire, joined by the famous roman roads. This one still has intact almost the whole city design from the huge ovaloid forum near the entrance for trading to the cordo maximus – main street that ran north south with soaring Corinthian colunms, a veritable highway wide enough to take chariots in both directions side by side – with indentations in the paving to prove it. Two theatres and a hippodrome ensured your average Gesarian had opportunity for sport and theatre or town meetings – all aided by the brilliant design features of these places with plenty of exits (apparently stadium today are still modeled on this style).

Having walked through Ephesus the difference in style is remarkable – the structure of the place, the absolute imprinting of the Roman will on the landscape (diverting the river on less) to keep to their master plan designs . We joked that it’s like McDonalds today – same layout all around the world!
Prize for the seemingly most out of place sight is the playing of bagpipes by buskers in these theatre ruins – I saw the same thing yesterday at the Amman citadel. A small band of two pipers and a drum playing everything from traditional Arabic music to Scotland the Brave. It’s just too weird for words – a testament perhaps to the British occupation from 1917 to 1946. This is really a young country and it seems very adaptable – they have adopted things with ease from other cultures throughout their history.
The other overwhelming thing about Jordan is the dryness – it’s dusty everywhere, I’m covered in the pale dust from the limestone features of Jerash but even in Amman there was dust everywhere. It’s one of the driest places on earth – even the olive trees look like they are hanging onto the sides of the steep hills for dear life. And then quixotically today we drive past many nurseries by the side of the road – it was hard at first glance to see that anyone had any trees on their property at all but closer inspection shows dust covered low water tolerant plants near the more affluent suburbs.

On a political note we also drove past what are referred to as the Palestinean camps, once there were tents now there’s building and shanty type towns stretching along the ridges to the north of Amman. 3 million of the country’s population of 6 million is Palestinean.