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One of the most prominent names on the list of favorite
destinations in Jordan is the ancient city of Jerash
which boasts an unbroken chain of human occupation
dating back more than 6,500 years. The city's golden age
came
 under Roman rule and the site is now generally
acknowledged to be one of the best preserved Roman
provincial towns in the world. In Jerash, which is 50 Km
away from Amman, visitors can witness ruins of an
ancient Decapolis city inhabited since the Neolithic
period was discovered in 1806 by Ulrich Jasper Seetzen a
German traveler. Hidden for centuries in sand before
being excavated and restored over the past 70 years, it
reveals a fine example of the grand, formal provincial
Roman urbanism that is found throughout the Middle East,
comprising paved and colonnaded streets,
 soaring hilltop
temples, handsome theatres, spacious public squares and
plazas, baths, fountains and city walls pierced by
towers and gates. Beneath its external Graeco - Roman
veneer, Jerash also preserves a subtle blend of east and
west. Its architecture, religion and languages reflect a
process by which two powerful cultures meshed and
coexisted, The Graeco - Roman world of the Mediterranean
basin and the ancient traditions of the Arab Orient.
Jerash
 reveals a fine example of the grand, formal
provincial Roman urbanism that is found throughout the
Middle East, comprising paved and colonnaded streets,
soaring hilltop temples, handsome theatres, spacious
public squares and plazas, baths, fountains and city
walls pierced by towers and gates.
The city's architecture, religion and languages indicate
the coexistence of two cultures, The Graeco - Roman
world of the Mediterranean basin and the traditions of
the Arab Orient. This interaction is reflected in its
name, the earliest Arab/Semitic inhabitants, who lived
in the area during the pre-classical period of the first
millennium BCE, named their village Garshu. The Romans
later Hellenized the former Arabic name of Garshu into
Gerasa, and the Bible refers to "the region of the
Gerasenes" (Mark 5:1; Luke 8:26). At the end of the 19th
century, the Arab and Circassian inhabitants of the
small rural settlement transformed the Roman Gerasa into
the Arabic Jerash.
In the days of Alexander the Great (332BC) the city grew
increasingly prosperous and important until, in 63 BC,
when the Roman emperor Pompey conquered the region and
it became one of the ten great Roman cities, the Decapolis League.
A series of earthquakes in 749 AD did serious damage the
city and hastened its decline. By this date the
population was less than 4,000; and although the site
was occupied in the Early Islamic period until 800 AD,
Gerasa became nothing more than a small rural
settlement.
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